A young woman working as a secretary finds a shipwreck survivor on the beach who claims his vessel was the Star of Shanghai, but she discovers this matches her employer's husband who died in a shipwreck twenty-five years earlier.

Captain Steve investigates a con man who preys on women at department stores through whirlwind romances, but when the case connects to the shooting death of Thomas Clement and a web of debts involving Miss Linda, Steve must unravel whether he's dealing with a simple grifter or something far more deadly.