It's Christmas so Maddie, a reporter for a Norfolk newspaper, agrees to go on a 'Tiger Cruise' with her mother, invited by her sister, Amelia, a Lieutenant in the Navy. The three receive a dinner invitation from the ship's captain who invites his own son to join them for dinner and reminisce about Christmas's past when the ships Captain used to work alongside Maddie and Amelia's father who is now deceased. As the Captain discusses the very first Tiger Cruise, Maddie is inspired to write about a long forgotten romance of a couple who first met on that voyage.
Captain Jenkins assigns his good looking fighter pilot son Billy to assist Maddie in researching her story by accessing the ships archives.