When Raffles sets sail from the cold damp confines of Georgian London to make his name and fortune in the tropics he takes with him his new wife Olivia a raffish beauty with a scandalous past She infatuates both his closest friend a poet and one of his bitterest rivals a soldier Raffles sees what is going on but he turns a blind eye or so hopes Olivia After Olivias death and back on leave in London Raffles a man once again in need of a wife makes a practical marriage Sophia no beauty but curious and intelligent embraces the opportunity of an exciting life abroad Marriage brings her great joy but also great sadness Her life with Raffles becomes a catalogue of loss of their children of their possessions of their savings And all the while Raffles driven and talented manoeuvres at the centre of global networks of power trade politics and diplomacy His scheming culminates to his eventual glory with the founding of a new trading post Singapore