Caroline Gray would rather be daring and intelligent than demure and insipid, But her family's threadbare finances leave Caroline with only one choice to secure her future: sail with the Fleet to India, where a family friend will consider an engagement to her. Captain Thomas Scott despises the trip his ship makes as he ferries young English girls across the ocean. But when Miss Gray boards the HMS Persistence, he is delighted at her boldness. His passengers aren't so kind though, and Captain Scott becomes her unlikely ally. Now, Caroline has to decide if she is going to marry a man she's never met or be brave enough to love a sea captain who might break her heart.