Jean Lafond, the governor of the small West Indies island of St. Sinistra, says that the player's father has contracted a "wasting tropical disease".

Eventually, the player's character finds that two men are striving for her affections: dashing pirate Nicholas Jamison, and the conniving Jean Lafond.

As the intrigue plays out, the lady does not sit idly by and watch the men duel over her; she must help Jamison overcome the evil plans of Lafond so that they have a chance to live happily ever after.

As early as 1984, Infocom employees joked about the possibility of a romance text adventure, although The Boston Globe observed "somehow the moves don't seem appropriate to a computer keyboard".

[4] ANALOG Computing approved of the game's "intrigue, adventure and, yes, romance", but regretted that "most of Infocom's regular audience (presumably male) are likely to forsake this bold new endeavor" because of its genre.