Take myself, for instance. I am a gentleman only by birth and breeding. Otherwise, pray believe I am quite unspeakable, quite.

1806. Boston. A decade after abandoning his wife and young son for adventure on the high seas, Captain Shelton has returned home ... with a list of French royalist conspirators in his hands and a rather remarkable young lady in his care. He has been commissioned to deliver both the list of names and the lady to safety. A sharp and fiercely intelligent woman, Mademoiselle de Blanzy will do all she can to ensure the captain is true to his word. If he does not deliver the letter, the conspirators may be hunted down themselves, or turn on each other. In return for the captain's efforts, Napoleon's agents are seeking his capture and death.

Captain Shelton's reputation and fortune were lost before he left America, and his son Henry, now a man, has grown up in the shadow of his father's tarnished name. But the wishes of his deceased mother and his own curiosity drive Henry to reconnect with his father. Though unsure of his father's motives and stunned by the diplomatic nature of his escapades, Henry finds himself drawn to help Mlle. de Blanzy through this ordeal. Captain Shelton takes advantage of this opportunity to instruct Henry on what sort of man he can become, not by being a good example, he insists, but by showing him what not to do in order to be a gentleman.

Despite his obvious vices and his "different code of morals," Henry's father proves himself to be a many-faceted man, chivalrous in his own way and quick on his feet and with his wit. Henry may soon learn that he is not so unlike his father as he thinks ...