The sequel to 1981's The Smuggler, Adventurer sees Jack Vincent as an ex-British-naval officer turned smuggler, who has had to learn to live by his wits and his sword. Jack has since been caught and is on a prison ship bound for the penal colony on Norfolk Island on the other side of the world in the Pacific. But before getting there, the savage and sadistic treatment from the ship's captain, Jack's vindictive brother-in-law, forces Jack into a desperate mutiny on the high seas which results in a shipwreck on a not-so-deserted island. Jack survives to lead a motley group of misfits and miscreants in their struggle to survive and to elude re-capture and execution. Not to mention the hostile Maori natives and the buried treasure.