Orphaned John Trenchard grows up in the village of Moonfleet with his aunt, entranced by the local legend of the ghostly Blackbeard, who rises each winter evening to find his dropped diamond. While performing his own hunt for the treasure, John is stuck in the church crypt and discovers the real secret of the village: smuggling. Taken under the wing of the gruff innkeeper and chief smuggler, Elzevir Stop, John begins an unhealthy adventure that may see him inside a hair-raising run after along a precarious cliff route and deciphering a concealed code within an ancient castle. Moonfleet is definitely a thrilling story of revenge and betrayal, of devotion and great sacrifice, but it is certainly above all a tale about friendship.