After Danetha's refusal to be Matched, she takes Seashimmer to sail the ports of the Southern Dominion, in a bid to escape her mother's meddling.

There she agrees to transport contraceptive preparations for the Ladies' Guild, a cargo which the male-dominated Mariner's Guild has refused to carry. At several ports she endures the protests of the Original Seafarers against her 'evil cargo'. Danetha refuses to let them sway her from her mission to transport the cargoes women need for their freedom.

But as protests from the Original Seafarers grow stronger, Danetha must summon up all her courage to defy those hateful men.