Fisheries and Wildlife Officer Kirby Wellington has been promoted from head office to second in command at a country station.
On his first day out of the office, on the real job, his new boss gives him some lessons and advice about the fish poachers he will encounter at Mafeking Bay.
The boss calls them pirates who rape and pillage the fish resources and flout associated laws in that part of the world.
He predicts that Kirby and Lincoln Campbell, the biggest pirate of them all, will cross paths in the near future.
This prediction comes true but a second prophecy, that Kirby will have the last laugh, haunts the younger officer during his work over a period of years. Who will win?