Sir Oliver Tessilian, a Cornish nobleman, is abandoned or betrayed by everyone he ever loved. He is framed for murder, affronted and shunned by his fiancee and sold into slavery by his half-brother.

Tessilian converts to Islam and becomes the Barbary Corsair, Sakr-el-Bahr, "Hawk of the Sea." He invades the coast of England on a captured Spanish ship and kidnaps the woman whose love for him had been poisoned by deceit and whose unforgiving repugnance had kept him form returning home. This 1923 best seller, doused with pirates, sea battles, villainy, romance and revenge, is considered one of the great classic swashbucklers of all time.