1976: USS Redstone, the oldest ship in the Fleet, is ground zero for the newest idea in the Navy: integrating women onto ships. While engineers of Redstone labor to prepare quarters for women, the ship is tapped to bring priceless cargo across the Atlantic for a public relations tour. The State Department wants to put a new face on US-Arab relations, and the face they choose is the three-thousand-year-old solid gold image of Egypt's boy king: Tutankahmun. But part of the shipment-and two sailors-go missing during a ferocious storm at sea.

Fifteen years later, Maggie Freeman, stuck in a dead end town and tired of her life, joins the Navy and trades the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia for the deep blue of the ocean. Assigned to USS Redstone, she encounters the ship's megalomaniacal Chief Engineer, Mal Hiller, who uses fear and intimidation to subvert everyone aboard ship, male and female.

When the United States finds itself on the brink of war with Iraq, Redstone is called upon to sprint across the ocean in a move to salvage US-Middle East relations. Menaced by Hiller, Maggie finds an ally in the resourceful Steve Carter. Together they discover a dark secret hidden in the heart of the ship, which may be the key to escape being buried at sea by their vindictive enemy.