Tess Williams has made it to the top of the banking world as senior vice president of the largest financial institution in the US. As head of The Bank's IT division she makes a presentation to an international banking conference in London. Her ideas inspire a small, nefarious group of world bankers to want her creative talents to design a system where they can make secret transactions between banks, between countries, among corporations, all without anyone ever knowing it has happened. One of the conspirators, her boss and ex-lover, takes her on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean to convince her to join his group of thieves. Presented with a "help us or die" ultimatum, she refuses to write the software. He pulls strings to have her passport revoked in an effort to blackmail her. She sails for weeks as a woman without a country, never going ashore, a prisoner on the ship's meandering worldwide cruise. All seems lost until the cruise ship rescues a man from a sinking sailboat who wins her confidence and affection. Together, the two of them fight overwhelming odds as they jump ship and attempt to escape from their powerful adversaries. High adventure follows as they flee to the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean and on to Kyoto, Japan desperately running from their pursuers.