Being poor in Regency England is a harsh life sentence. For John Francis, the Good Men offer his only hope of escape. John returns home penniless from Waterloo to learn he is the 7th Earl of Standean. Or would be, if his father hadn't been hung for treason many years before, leaving John and his now-deceased mother outcasts from high society. Disinherited and impoverished, John takes up leadership of his village's smuggling gang as he battles the powerful lord who ruined his family.