The hero of the "Rover's Secret", a young Royal Naval officer, narrates his peculiar experiences in childhood and his subsequent perils and achievements: the mutiny on board the Hermione; his escape with a companion to La Guayra, their seizure by the Spaniards, their romantic flight, and the strange blunder which commits them to a cruise to the headquarters of the notorious pirate Merlani, whose ultimate capture and confession come about in a way as exciting as unexpected.