The British have driven a wedge between the Pirates of the Caribbean by offering them a pardon if they renounce piracy. Those who accept the deal will keep their loot, and their heads, but those who refuse face the hangman’s noose. Leading pirates like Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings throw in their lot with the Crown. But the brutal Charles Vane refuses to sign and emerges as the leader of the resistance in Nassau. The pirates' nemesis, Woodes Rogers, sets sail from London and heads for Nassau.