In the 1740s, British culture allows few options for the son of a merchant ship captain. And in a time of war, a man with John Newton 's experience must serve the king. But Newton a man who quotes Virgil and curses God with equal fervor is interested in serving only himself. Mary Catlett simply cannot believe her childhood friend sailed away on a British warship and vanished in Africa. In desperation, she takes a step that will change her life and call her lost love home. But will he arrive in time? Newton 's odyssey takes him from the West Africa gold coast to the banks of Newfoundland to the heart of the Atlantic before he finds what he's spent his entire life longing for: deliverance.