Jack would rather be at sea than fixing the mistakes of his grandfather, the late Earl of Stansworth. Instead, he finds that inheriting his grandfather's wealth and title and securing the welfare of his sister and mother means joining the ranks of high society and living with the aristocracy. Luckily, Ivy Carslisle, the granddaughter of a dear friend of Jack's late grandmother, is willing to teach him etiquette and properly introduce him into society....

Un marino sin barco, desterrado del mar, conoce a una extraña mujer que posee, tal sin saberlo, respuestas a preguntas que ciertos hombres se hacen desde hace siglos. Nunca el mar y la Historia, la ciencia de la navegación, la aventura y el misterio, se habían combinado de modo tan extraodinario en una novela, como en La carta esférica. De Melville a Stevenson y Conrad, de Homero a Patrick O'Brian, toda la gran literatura escrita sobre el mar...

At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight Chinaś vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman...

The Ibis, loaded to its gunwales with a cargo of indentured servants, is in the grip of a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal; among the dozens flailing for survival are Neel, the pampered raja who has been convicted of embezzlement; Paulette, the French orphan masquerading as a deck hand; and Deeti, the widowed poppy grower fleeing her homeland with her lover, Kalua. The storm also threatens the clipper ship Anahita, groaning with the largest consignment...