Christmas 1949 and all Frank Keegan, ex-US Navy Gunner's Mate and former San Diego Police detective wants, is to get into his refurbished boat into the water and sail over the horizon. Or the edge of the earth. Six months earlier, the boat was high and dry, and Frank was perpetually wet at the bottom of a bottle of dark rum. Enter Julie Flynn, former taxi-dancer turned bartender, who pulls him out of the bottle and into her arms. However, as one of Frank's few friends observed, an ex-cop and a call girl with ties to the Chinese mob isn't exactly a match made in heaven. Especially when Julie's estranged grifter mother shows up out of the blue on Christmas Day, leaving Frank and Julie thinking it the perfect time to sail into the sunset. When Julie is first attacked, and then framed for murder, Frank has to keep the head-strong girl under wraps while clearing her name. His efforts take him from seedy world of Honolulu's Chinatown to the home of one the island's wealthy patriarchs, who may be shipping contraband arms to Communist rebels in the Philippines. Then there's Carmen, the patriarch's unstable, power-hungry daughter, who might hold the key to clearing Julie, if Frank is willing play ball. She's just his type and nothing but trouble. With HPD and the real killer bearing down, sailing off looks more attractive by the day. If he can just find Julie and get her on the boat before it's too late.