Architect Jonathan West is on a big project when he learns his wife, Patrice, has been unfaithful. On a fishing trip in North Carolina's Outer Banks, he's wondering what to do about his marriage when he sees a ghost ship. On it is a spectral woman, gazing at him with a plea in her eyes. Jonathan buys a house on the beach near the sighting and finds an old sea chest washed up there. Its contents, which include a miniature portrait, reveal it belonged to Kate Russell, captain of the Royal Thomas, which sank in 1721. It's the same woman Jonathan saw on the ghost ship, and her journal describes a life of piracy. As past and present collide, he starts seeing her everywhere, waking and sleeping. With a haunting desperation, he senses she wants something from him. If he can figure out what it is and find a way to help her, he believes her spirit will finally rest."