They're called The Glory Boys, by those who regard their exploits with envy or contempt. January 1943: Glory Boy Bob Kearton - already a veteran and survivor of the close action in the English Channel and North Sea - is ordered to the Mediterranean and beleaguered Malta, a mere sixty miles from occupied Sicily. Unexpectedly promoted to lieutenant-commander, he is given charge of a newly formed and, as yet, incomplete flotilla of motor torpedo boats. Although the tide of defeat is thought to be turning, with the enemy no longer advancing along the North African coast, Kearton's is a new war of stealth, subterfuge, and daring, in which the Glory Boys are only too expendable.