When Saint Morris first met Juliana DuPres, he was a young doctor, just landed on the island of Maui; and she the fourteen-year-old daughter of a puritanical minister. When he left, he took Juliana's young heart with him.

But, four years later, when they meet again in San Francisco, their innocence is the most distant part of a fading memory. Now a beautiful woman, Juliana has been kidnapped by a crew of whalers, drugged, humiliated and beaten, and paraded as the perfect product at the Barbary Coast auction -- a slave created for men. When finally she has lost all hope, Saint rescues her and takes her back to her parents on Maui.

But at home Juliana is far from welcome. Her family disowns her, the islanders revile her, and she is regarded as no better than a common prostitute. Saint continues to be her honourable guardian -- he marries her and takes her back to San Francisco to look after her, as a protector, an elder brother. Juliana, however, has other ideas...