"June, 1851--Successful husband-and-wife team of merchants, Nell and Peter Starbuck, are packing for their next trip; they are set toleave in two days on a brand new clipper ship built by the famed Donald McKay of East Boston. Their goal is to set the world record fora passage to San Francisco, and then they'll continue on to China. Ever since a tragedy occurred on a trip the family made when their daughter, Winnie, was just a child, Nell and Peter have forbidden herfrom joining them on their merchanting journeys around the globe. They also never told her about the event, which she was too young to remember. Now, what would make an 18-year-old stubborn, strident, confident girl more upset than being forbidden from doing the very thing she most wants to do in the entire world, namely go to sea? And, what might that daughter do, knowing this is the very last trip her parents are ever planning to take before they retire, and knowing she absolutely, positively, must see the harbor at Canton? Well, she definitely might plan to stow away on her parents? own ship"--