Assigned to escort privateer Emile Bonnaire from Le Havre to Paris the musketeers have to thwart an escape attempt by his wife Maria and an ambush by his aggrieved ex-business partner Meunier and his men, during which Porthos is wounded, necessitating a sojourn at a deserted château. Athos explains it belongs to his family and was where he married Milady. Bonnaire is revealed to be a slave owner and, on arrival in Paris, bribes Richelieu into forming a partnership operating tobacco plantations in the New World, using slaves as a work force. However there is another faction out to capture Bonnaire and the musketeers are braking no rules in handing him over to them.