Pretty Irish lass Pegeen O'Barry lives in a small fishing village on the cost with her kind but alcoholic father and her vicious stepmother Moll. When her father is killed during a drunken brawl, a stunned Pegeen wanders down to the shore in her grief. She is noticed by Sir Arthur Ormsby, an Englishman who just happens to be sailing his yacht up the coast. He takes a liking to her and before long she's moved into his estate. Things are going along swimmingly until Arthur's wastrel brother Guy shows up.