While in the approach of getting taken prisoner, the heroine Cordelia winds up in the clutches of the severely unbalanced admiral Vorrutyer, who has restraints developed into his mattress, an abiding curiosity in the Marquis de Sade, and a tendency to monologue - and who, certainly, admires her spirit - but who isn't going to acquire additional than a bored, clinical fascination in her until finally he realizes that she's his ex-boyfriend's.