Captain Will Laurence and his noble dragon Temeraire battle against Bonaparte's invading forces. When China discovers that their rare gift, meant for Napoleon, is now in the hands of the British forces, they demand the return of the dragon.

Tragedy has struck His Majesty's Aerial Corps, as an epidemic of unknown origin and no known cure is decimating the dragons' ranks. Only Temeraire and a pack of newly recruited dragons remain uninfected and must stand as the only means of airborne defense against France's ever bolder sorties. As Bonaparte's dragons harrow Britain's ships, Temeraire and his captain, Will Laurence, take wing to Africa in search of a cure for the deadly contagion.

Convicted of treason and transported to the prison colony at New South Wales, Will Lawrence and his fighting dragon, Temeraire, encounter complications after the colony's governor, Captain William Bligh, is overthrown. Convicted of treason despite their heroic defense against Napoleon's invasion of England, Temeraire the dragon and his friend and rider, Capt. Will Laurence, are transported to the prison colony in Australia. They carry with them three...

Shipwrecked and cast ashore in Japan with no memory of Temeraire or his own experiences as an English aviator, Captain William Laurence finds himself tangled in deadly political intrigues that threaten not only his own life but England's already precarious position in the Far East.