Lindsay Franklin's life is an adventure she has just begin to enjoy. At eighteen, Arthur Franklin's cosseted daughter has left her Glasgow school and finds her role as a marriageable young lady with a widowed father more than agreeable. And the source of the family's wealth, the Franklins' shipbuilding yard on Clydeside, is prospering as the long peace of Queen Victoria's reign gives way to the feverish arms race of the new century. But Lindsay's life takes an unexpected turn when her ambitious, charming Irish cousin Forbes comes to Glasgow to join the family business. And then Lindsay's grandfather, the founder and dictator of the business, decides to retire and hand over his shipyard to the new generation. Unexpectedly, a share in the business will be Lindsay's - and equally unexpectedly, she decides that she must master that business as carefully as her male cousins. What is not surprising is that several eligible men decide that it is time to master Lindsay. As the mysteries of shipbuilding open to her, and the puzzle of male behaviour becomes both more fascinating and more dangerous, Lindsay will have to make some fateful decisions. Decisions that will make or mar her whole future.