In 1814, the enigmatic James Delaney returns from years in Africa to a London that believed him dead, inheriting a scrap of coastline that places him squarely between the ruthless East India Company, the Crown, and the newborn United States. Rumored to have gone half-savage abroad and haunted by his own dark appetites, Delaney wages a patient campaign of vengeance and intrigue against enemies who badly underestimate him. Brooding, grimy, and atmospheric, the period thriller conjures a corrupt empire from the ground up, with Tom Hardy's growling antihero at its sinister heart.