Captain Eric Hamilton is a powerful force in the U.S. Navy, having earned himself a reputation of being a hard-nosed chauvinist. He's commander of the USS Larsen, a destroyer, currently deployed in the Persian Gulf during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Abby Carlton has just escaped from the man who held her captive for a year. Abducted while traveling in Paris, she was given to an Arab man as a gift, until one night she makes her desperate escape. While on patrol one morning Captain Eric Hamilton discovers a dinghy floating aimlessly. Abby is found, battered and in an advanced state of pregnancy, lying in the bottom of the dinghy. From the moment she lay on the deck of his ship her honest innocence finds a way to penetrate his hardened heart. But time is running out. Eric is falsely accused of sexual assault and the CIA wants Abby and the baby for bait to flush out her captor, who is suspected of recent terrorist activity in the gulf.