The subtitle is A Serio-Comic Novel of Anne Bonny & Mary Read. It isn't the whole story of Anne and Mary; this is more like an origin story. The tale is essentially true in its outlines, but historical accuracy is occasionally overwhelmed by authorial invention. The scene is the Caribbean, 1718: Englishwoman Mary Read is forced to disguise herself as sailor Martin Read; then things get more complicated when she falls in love with another sailor, Peter Meredith, a brilliant man but rather clueless about the sea... who also has no idea that his best friend is a woman. To make matters worse, they're both captured by pirates. To make matters worse yet, one of the pirates is Anne Bonny, Southern belle turned scourge of the Caribbean. Anne takes a very strong liking to Martin Read - which enrages her lover, Captain Calico Jack Rackam. Mary's life becomes a whirlwind of intrigue, imprisonment, deadly duels, and unwanted sexual advances that are inappropriate even by the rather loose standards of 18th-century pirates. And there are other problems: the new Governor of the Bahamas wants to put an end to Anne Bonny's career, and a vicious enemy from Calico Jack's past is out for a bloody revenge. The only way out of all these various predicaments is for Mary Read and Anne Bonny to team up: to join swords and put their trust in each other and in no one else. Based on a true story, The Legendary Adventures of the Pirate Queens combines drama and comedy to tell the tale of two women who in ordinary times would never have met; and yet did meet, and went on to become the most fearsome pair of sea-faring hellions in the West Indies.