The haunting song of a distant era calls the beautiful graduate student to her subject, the enigmatic Captain Blackwell. Across the centuries, she is drawn by an inexplicable passion into a realm of mystery and danger--to be imprisioned in an opulent world of harem intrigue and sensuous slavery. And now Blackwell is with her--patriot, privateer, heroic commander of the U.S. merchantman the Pearl--the dream, the desire made achingly real. Imperiled captives of fate, they are united by a power far greater than time--and by a passion that could destroy them both . . . or forever change the course of history.