Captain Thomas Benjamin Coston, heir to heavily mortgaged properties left to him by his recently deceased father, whose death initiates a desperate attempt of retrieval, prompting a trip to Santo Domingo, island home of Raphael Delsantos, wealthy patron and acquirer of the captains land and plantation home, Canaan’s Temple. Duped into marriage with the patron’s only daughter, he enters into a nest of mystery and infamy, spanning two continents and extending into the very bowels of the war of 1812. This is a story of a love-hate relationship enmeshed in duplicity and intrigue.