After eight months adrift in the Pacific, HMS Resolution returns to the shores of Tahiti in April 1774. What Captain Cook and his crew find is a world both familiar and transformed: abundant fruit, rebuilt homes, old friends—and a red-feather economy in full bloom. But beneath the island’s charm, a silent armada is gathering.
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After weeks among barren reefs and tense island encounters, the crew of the Resolution longs for healing. For Georg Forster, struck down by a gall illness, the sight of Tahiti on the horizon is more than a return—it's salvation.
After months of frost and famine, the HMS Resolution anchors off Tahuata in the Marquesas Islands—where warriors are tattooed head to toe, women vanish into the hills, and a king wears barkcloth and a feathered crown. His name is Honu—turtle—and his island offers peace after death.
A gift of kava roots. A stolen iron bar. A musket fired in haste.
As HMS Resolution sails westward from the desolate volcanic shores of Easter Island, hope hangs on the horizon. But at the lush green edge of the Marquesas, a fatal misunderstanding shatters the fragile balance of first contact.
Easter Island, March 1774. A scorched land, stone giants, and people living in the fading shadow of something greater than themselves. When Captain Cook's men explore the island’s interior, they find more than potatoes and carved wood—they uncover questions that history has never fully answered.