In Boston, as the Golden Age of Piracy comes to a bloody close, Hannah Masury - bound into service at a waterfront inn since childhood - is ready to take her life into her own hands. When William Fly is hanged for piracy in the town square, the teenage Hannah is watching. Forced to flee for her life, Hannah disguises herself as a cabin boy and joins the pitiless crew of another notorious real-life pirate, Edward "Ned" Low. To earn her freedom and finally change the tide of her own future, Hannah must hunt down William Fly's lost treasure.

Meanwhile in 1930, Professor Marian Beresford pieces this bewitching story together, seeing her own lack of freedom reflected back at her as she watches Hannah's transformation. At the centre of Hannah Masury's account, however, lies a centuries-old mystery that Marian is determined to solve. It soon becomes clear that Hannah was once just as determined to take this secret to her grave.

A True Account tells the unforgettable, interleaved stories of two women in different worlds, both shattering the rules of their own society, both daring to risk everything to go forge their own adventure.