Samantha Randall is a spirited English beauty whose impetuousity places her in a very compromising situation that only marriage to the American sea captain, Christopher Welles, a man she barely knows and cannot like, will salvage her reputation. Taunted by the beauty of a wife who shuns his desire to recapture the magic of their first union, Christopher begins a subtle courtship on the voyage to his home in the Florida Territory, which Samantha finds herself powerless to resist. As their attraction for each other grows and love develops, so does their belief that nothing can mar the perfection of their lives. But fate decrees otherwise when Samantha is kidnapped by a British spy who intends to use her as a hostage to prevent Christopher's ship from supplying the Americans, forcing their lives to become separated by barriers of pride and forgotten memories which neither is able to surmount. With misfortune continuing to overshadow their lives, will Christopher and Samantha, whose love was born of indiscretion and nurtured by enduring passion, be able to triumph over adversity and recapture the happiiness that was so heartlessly taken from them?