The paid vacation cruise was a dream come true for Nurse Ruth Stewart until the private lives of the passengers turned it into a nightmare.

The break of a lifetime came Nurse Ruth Stewart’s way when the chief surgeon of Long Beach Hospital arranged for her to take a position as a nurse aboard a private yacht. But Ruth wasn’t sure if the passengers needed the services of a nurse or a psychiatrist.

Norbert Sutliff (her host and employer) was a self-made man who trusted no one, not even his long-suffering wife nor his two renegade sons,

Allen and Kenny — Allen was forced to fight for his own way of life, for his own profession, and his own wife. Kenny idolized his older brother but new well his father’s persuasive ability. Then there was

Mildred Harrington, the vivacious widow who was trying to win Sutliff’s attorney away from his alcoholic wife and

Darlene Harrington, who wanted desperately to become Mrs. Allen Sutliff…