Along the seaboard of the American South during the 1840s, cut-throat salvagers who profit from the wrecks of transatlantic cargo ships move from exploiting shipwrecks to causing them. As the most dangerous of the salvagers, King Cutler (Raymond Massey), takes aim at the ships of the wealthy Devereaux Company, ambitious ship captain Jack Stuart (John Wayne) and company lawyer Stephen Tolliver (Ray Milland) vie for the hand of feisty Loxi Claiborne (Paulette Goddard).