There are ghosts waiting in the water and Tom has made a bargain with a crazy old man who claims to be a 300-year-old pirate. Captain Swift wants Tom to find the magic island where he hid his treasure.But the paperboy has his own plan, to sail to his dad in Florida, before he's sent off to boarding school. So he'll put up with Captain Swift's stories, and his ill-tempered dog, while they fix the little boat that'll take him there. But what if Tom starts to believe Swift, who knows more about his family than he should? Tom saw the ghosts and now nothing will ever be the same. History and magic collide as Swift tells his tale about the golden age of piracy and how he came to be cursed on the shores of Purgatory Cove.