In 1661, Lucas Turner and his sister, Sally, stagger off a small wooden ship after 11 weeks at sea to make a fresh start in the rough and rowdy Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam. Lucas, a barber surgeon, and Sally, an apothecary, are both gifted healers and bound to each other by blood and necessity. Yet as their new lives unfold, lust, betrayal, and murder will make them deadly enemies.
In their struggle to survive in the New World, both make choices that will burden their descendants, dedicated physicians and surgeons, pirates and whoremasters, with a legacy of secrets and retribution. That heritage sets cousin against cousin, physician against surgeon, and ultimately, patriot against Tory.