On a yacht in the blue waters of the Caribbean, a little boy named Alex Hawke hides as his parents are brutally murdered by two strange men. After he's found, he's sent back to the island off the coast of England where generations of Hawkes have called home ever since their pirate forebear, the legendary Blackhawke, was betrayed and hung by the British.

Decades later, the boy, now a grown man and a naval hero, returns to the Caribbean on a special mission for the United States and Great Britain. His task is to find a missing stealth submarine and the men responsible for the theft. Once there, however, Hawke begins to have flashbacks about the night of his parents' murder. He has also brought along with him a piece of paper his father had pressed into his hands before his death--an ancient treasure map.

Hawke begins to puzzle through his own tragic history and the meaning of the map, even as the search for the submarine intensifies. Soon, he begins to realize that the two are connected and that to the victor not only will go unimaginable military power but also one of the greatest treasures in the world.