When the "Morning Star" sets sail on the Pacific in 1836, fourteen-year-old Patience Goodspeed can't wait to be the assistant navigator. But when danger strikes, Captain Goodspeed whisks his children, Patience and Tad, and their aunt Anne off to a boarding school in Hawaii until the ship returns. Here Reverend Wiggins, the headmaster, thinks girls should study sewing instead of math.

Then there's more trouble in paradise: Fanny Starbuck, a widow from Nantucket, is the silliest and frilliest etiquette teacher ever. And Patience discovers that Fanny's been writing love letters to the ship; fetching a proposal from Papa, for sure!

Sometimes growing up on dry land can be even rockier than a voyage on the sea, but Patience is about to learn that true friendship will sail her through it.