Harvard senior Sam Thatcher and his best friend and roommate, known as "The Lippencott", plan to go to Russia after graduation, a decision Sam has kept from his girlfriend, Alexandra Benson.
Banished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangsters, riff-raff, judges and a ship's doctor in order to achieve her aims.
