A saga of nine centuries in the life of the New Forest, a region in southern England that has played a significant role in the history of the country, beginning with the death of King William II.

Two men, Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's doctor and intelligence agent, become fast friends aboard a man-of-war ship during the Napoleonic wars.

While traveling through early seventh-century Britain trying to stop an impending war, Essa, who bears the blood of native British tribes and of the invading Anglish, discovers that his mother is alive and he, himself, is a prince of the northern kingdom, but he has loyalties and loved ones in the south to whom he is compelled to return.

In the late seventeenth century, fifteen-year-old Kit, driven to desperation by the starvation of one brother and the mistreatment of his simple-minded twin, realizes his dream of becoming an apprentice in London but feels drawn by duty to return home to Essex.

Jack and Annie travel back to Victorian London when Merlin asks them to use their magic to inspire Charles Dickens to write "A Christmas Carol."