 Promoter William Montague (Patric Knowles) wants to buy the estate owned by the Daceys, Mrs. Dacey (Carroll McComas)and her daughter Ena (Arlene Dahl) and son Todd (Wendell Corey), in order to build a resort hotel. When they turn him down, he produces a couple of distant relatives, Janice (Laura Elliott) and Robert Clayton (Michael Moore), and sets about to prove that the estate rightfully belongs to them. The identity of the rightful heirs is thought to be buried in a sunken ship off of the Jamaican shore and the search begins, led by a schooner skipper, Patrick Fairlie (Rayy Milland), who is in love with Ena.