Elizabeth Troyes, teenage orphan from Carolina, is sent to be a nursemaid in Revolutionary wartime Boston. The ship she is travelling on is captured by the British. Appointed prize master and captain of the Phoebe is Midshipman Jeffrey Kent of the Royal Navy and incidentally also her cousin. In storm and battle, among Tory refugees in America and noblemen and smugglers in England their relationship to each other and their loyalties are formed and tested.