The story covers eighty years in the lives of a pair of Welsh identical twins with an unusual bond, as they go through war, love affairs and land disputes.

Horatio Hornblower begins his naval career, but a deadly feud with a despicable mate is causing complications.

While Lt. Hornblower studies for his promotion examination, he is distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew.

Lt. Hornblower and his crew are captured by the enemy while escorting a Duchess who has secrets of her own.

Lt. Hornblower and his mates are sent to accompany a doomed royalist invasion of revolutionary France.

Hornblower and his comrades come under the command of a revered but obviously mentally unstable captain and eventually must mutiny.

Hornblower and the other officers of the Renown must return to Jamaica to face a court-martial and possible execution for their actions in relieving their unstable captain.

Hornblower is given a dangerous mission to deliver an emigre French nobleman to a secret rendezvous near Brest while coping with enemy agents in his own ranks.