Annemarie Ratcliff's life changes abruptly when a drunken sailor spins a tale about serving under a female pirate by the name of Anne Bonny. An English colonel believes his story and soon gathers information that implicates Annemarie's father as an accomplice to help the Anne Bonny escape from prison. The colonel charges her father with treason and threatens to hang him unless Annemarie agrees to be his mistress. But Fate sets sea captain Trevor Mowbray on a collision course with Annemarie and her father when he sails into the port of Norfolk, Virginia. He risks his life to help Annemarie escape, but a tropical storm destroys his frigate with all aboard presumed dead. However, Annemarie appears in Charlestown two days later, playing the grieving widow and sets tongues wagging when she buys a frigate and sails it herself. But will her life ever be complete without Trevor?