At an age when he should, by rights, be embarking on a well-deserved and comfortable retirement, Captain Whalley, a sailor of the old school — and even, in a small way, a pioneer of the eastern maritime trade — finds himself forced by circumstance and his own sense of honour to bind himself to a three year contract of employment as captain of a tramp steamer whose owner is the steamer's own engineer, and a mean and surly gambling addict to boot. Even this challenging situation, however, soon proves to be the least of Captain Whalley's difficulties.