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.