Late autumn 1941. The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force is terror-bombing Chinese cities, sweeping refugees by the untold thousands before their onslaught. The Imperial Japanese Army has invaded French Indochina, and it is suspected they may soon attack Thailand or Burma, perhaps even Singapore itself.

Captain Roy Mallinson, elderly Royal Navy veteran of the Great War, has been pulled from retirement to aid Britain in this new war. His old merchant navy ship, the SS Dominion Empress - its only defence an obsolescent single-barrel Bofors anti-aircraft cannon - is in Singapore loading obsolete US Brewster Buffalo aeroplanes desperately needed in Finland, and carrying Hindustan lead and Malaysian rubber for Britain. But Roy has come to a realization; war is for younger men than he. At the end of the present voyage it will be a quiet retirement with his wife in Stowmarket town.

However, the High Commissioner of British Malaya and his friend the Dutch banker have "other plans". Roy is forced into altering his route, taking on a cargo destined for Australia--a disguised cargo so valuable he dare not reveal it, even to his own crew.

As the old ship island-hops its way south, they must put in to Java for urgently needed repairs. Here in Batavia, free-spirited Rebecca McKenzie unexpectedly thrusts herself into the captain's life. She's an Australian desperately seeking passage home for herself and ten other Commonwealth nurses stranded here whilst fleeing war-torn China. How can he say no? But German auxiliary merchant raiders are rumoured to be operating in the area. Although Britain isn't at war with Japan yet--Perth is still a further 1,800 nautical miles away and anything may happen!