Dash is the most canny captain of the family, but because he lost a ship the grandmother who runs the family company punishes him by giving the captaincy of the family's beautiful new state-of-the-art ship to someone else. But there's a last minute change of plans, and it's Dash who gives the orders to hoist sail on the Victrix's maiden voyage. He asks seventeen-year-old Peter to tie up a few loose ends for him. How Peter, who adores Dash and has a serious crush on the woman Dash loves, ties up those ends entangles the family for decades.

The Yankee character, traditions, customs, dress, the role of women as both business leaders and "pretties", captains who can sail around the world and triple their profits but can't get across town because they can't drive a horse, new trade routes opening up, the lives on shore and on ship of people who may not see each other for years are all explored with an historian's intelligence and a novelist's panache. As the book sails toward the final pages, the outcome is as inexorable and as haunting as the final scene in a Greek tragedy.