While on his way to Porto Bello, Pieter Van Dijk, a young Dutch painter is taken captive by the feared pirate El Capitan Rojo. He discovers the pirate captain to be a fiery redhead who demands that he paint her portrait. In return, she tells him of the events that brought her to the command of the feared Scarlet Banshee. From a French convent school where she received her education, to the Spanish colony island where she lived with her Irish father, on to the secret pirate island somewhere in the Caribbean, Shalene O'Donnell lays bare her life. How she was taken captive and sold to be a bride to a pirate. How she avenged her husband's murder and claimed his position among the Company of Four, Her beauty was not her only weapon, for she had a firm wrist when she held a sword in her hand and a sure eye with a pistol. More than that, her wits were sharper than any blade and swifter than a pistol shot. How she rose to leadership of a small band of buccaneers after Spanish soldiers murdered her best friend and took most of the party captive. Of the revenge she took, and the ships that she captured to escape back to the pirate island of Nameless. All that and more she spoke of, while Pieter listened in awe and painted the most beautiful subject that he had ever seen.