King Charles is dead and Oliver Cromwell presides over the new Commonwealth. All should be well, but for a motley crew of disaffected radicals, chief among them John Silver, England under the 'Lord Protector' is little better than it was before. Only at sea, under a pirate flag, can the clamorous voices of republicanism, anarchy and theocracy be heard. Scraps of "Hamlet", "King Lear" and "The Tempest" all find echoes in the disordered mind of John Silver as he plies his violent trade along the Barbary Coast, turning every political enmity to his advantage and dodging the knife of his ruthless pursuer, Captain Mission. Based on the real life cutthroat of Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and set around the historical pirate republic of Rabat, this wild tale of high seas and low politics exposes the class hatreds and religious hypocrisy of the 17th century.