'I was spellbound by the hooded man at work. Mesmerized by this agent of death, who had ignored the carnage around him by biding his time and waiting to strike.'

It is the Golden Age of Piracy and the New World beckons. Edward Kenway - the brash young son of a wool merchant who dreams of gold - cannot resist the lure of a life of glory on the high seas.

When his family homestead is attacked there seems like no better time to escape, and Kenway soon establishes himself as one of the deadliest privateers of his day.

But greed, ambition and betrayal follow closely in his wake. And when evidence of a crippling conspiracy begins to surface, threatening to destroy everything that he holds dear, Kenway can't resist the urge for retribution.

And so he is drawn into the centuries-old battle between the Assassins and the Templars.