Alexandra Gables needs no man to run her life. Educated, witty and wealthy, she is the only child in a family with a long line of prominent scientists. Despite her gender, Alexandra intends to continue that heritage and let no man stand in her way. But her father, anxious for grandchildren, teams up with an old friend whose equally stubborn and brilliant son, Pierce Williams, has no time for a frivolous woman to slow down his life. When Alexandra is sent to Salem to help the elder Williams catalogue and sketch a scientific collection for the Royal Society of London, she has no idea that she is being dangled as marriage material for Pierce. Both are firmly determined to ignore each other, but Alexandra is drawn to Pierce's quick wit, irresistible charm and enviable scientific and engineering skill. However, close encounters with Pierce trigger an increase in the strange prophetic visions she has had all her life - visions that have no scientific basis or explanation. When a vision reveals the destruction of a ship Pierce designed, built and will sail on, she must risk a deepening love for Pierce against the loss of his life and all her future dreams.