Arken Freeth is a 14-year-old boy in the Lantish Military Academy. War has broken out with the Amarrat Empire. Arken and his classmates set off on their first training voyage as officers-to-be into waters previously controlled by the Lantish Sea Service, but now patrolled by the Tookans, pirate allies of the Amarrats.

Part Neanderthal, but raised as a human, Arken Freeth finds that he doesn't fit in either world as he struggles to survive.