In Jamaica, English privateeers keep the Spanish at bay and hold the island for England. Henry Morgan and the buccaneers plunder the Spanish Main while hoodwinking a succession of governors. In Port Royal, Eugenie works as a serving girl in Collier's Tavern. Morgan and his friends raise a Christmas toast to Charles II, the newly restored king. A pall is cast by the intrusion of Thomas Lynch, president of the council. Lynch demands to know if any of the captains have slaves among their plunder, since he is a factor for the Dutch Royal African company. He threatens Eugenie, claiming to have a...

Amateur art collector Mary Brandegee rivals Isabella Stuart Gardner and Henry Frick in Edwardian New England. As a young girl, Mary Pratt inherits a large fortune and so does her cousin and best friend Isabel Perkins. Stalked by the infamous gossip-monger Colonel Mann, their family summers in Prides Crossing. Both girls make promising marriages, but after building a fine estate in Boston, Mary's husband Charles Sprague descends into madness. She makes a good second marriage with Edward Brandegee. They travel in Europe and collect art pieces based on Mary's intuition. She knows little about...

The spirit of an African captive curses the family of the slave-trader who killed her. Generations later, Betty Colt inherits a deserted mansion in Rhode Island. Are her forebears haunting the mansion, or are they the ones being haunted? Betty arrives at the homestead built by wicked George DeWolf, her great, great grandfather, who left the town of Bristol bankrupt in 1825. The little girl who was George's daughter, Theodora, reclaimed the house when she married into the wealthy Colt family. Theodora's son Pomeroy was known as "Twisty" on Wall Street. He rigged his will as a shell game: the...