This is book 18 of the "Aubrey-Maturin" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

Yet another set of close shaves for Jack. With the war coming to an end (in fact, Napolean is in prison on Elba), Jack is unlikely to get a ship. He's managed to make enemies, mostly by not letting big landowners steal the living from the commoners. And if he's not needed when he becomes an Admiral, then he gets "yellowed"—assigned to no squadron, and not employed.

For this, Stephen has arranged for him to go to South America and help Chile form a Navy. Everybody needs a Navy, right?

Sophie has managed to find out about the silly girl in Canada, and is righteously indignant, and unforgiving. (Her mother poked through Jacks papers, and Jack had been unable to bring himself to throw out her letters.) There's an a amazing conversation, with Diana and Mrs. Oakes discussing sex with Sophie, which we hear about mostly from Diana discussing it with Stephen. Anyway, Diana seems to actually have managed to put Sophie right on some things, and she forgives Jack.

Basically, all sorts of things Jack was worried about or had trouble with are straightened out in this book, and everything becomes relatively rosy. Nobody actually does get yellowed, despite the title. At the end, he's the right man in the right place to start dealing with the troubles in the Mediterranean.

Jack is within a hair of missing things—he's due to be off to Chile.