BOSTON 1795--Merchant sea captain Reese Thackeray returns home to find that a young woman is in charge of the counting house with which he does business, a business he considers to be the bailiwick of men. Accustomed to being in command, Thackeray soon discovers that he does not command Marin Sutton when there is a disagreement over his contract. The tall, slender, green-eyed beauty is not the naive woman he, at first, takes her to be but is annoyingly smart, clever, and, to the methodical Thackeray, much too bold. Marin is quite certain, however, that the charismatic, darkly handsome captain is every bit the condescending, chauvinistic cad she takes him to be. Unfortunately, Thackeray is the most knowledgeable in the ways of the treacherous Barbary pirates, and she needs his help to settle a personal matter in Algiers. When the captain refuses to aid her, Marin devises an audacious plan that lands her in the center of a diplomatic incident and finds her on a dangerous mission to the Barbary Coast under Thackeray's command.
