Vice-Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes and his lifelong friend Rear-Admiral Richard Bluewater arrive with their fleet off Wychecombe, where the failing Sir Wycherly Wychecombe's tangled inheritance brings the scheming Tom Wychecombe into conflict with the honorable colonial-born naval officer Wycherly Wychecombe. Young Wycherly grows increasingly attached to Mildred Dutton while Sir Wycherly's sudden illness raises urgent questions about the future of his estate and family name. At the same time, news of the Jacobite rising under Charles Edward Stuart exposes a serious political difference between the firmly Hanoverian Oakes and Bluewater, whose sympathies lean toward the Stuart cause.
