Before the Black Pearl was cursed, there was a young captain named Jack Sparrow.
Though this is the official summary, it does not match the plot of the book.
An army of shadows has been amassed. This Shadow Army has one goal: to find and kill all the Pirate Lords who rule over the Seven Seas. But the soothsayer Tia Dalma has other plans for the Lords and cannot allow them to be destroyed. With few options at her disposal, she calls upon the one man who can turn the tide—Captain Jack Sparrow.
Volume Five finds Jack and his crew—as well as some unwelcome tagalongs—en route to France in search of the rare and powerful Shadow Gold. Jack soon discovers that he is being trailed by a mysterious band of misfits who call themselves the Fourth Estate. Are they agents of the East India Trading Company, pirates in league with the Shadow Lord, or something far more terrible?