Plot summary

December, 1941. While docked in The Philippines in preparation for its first wartime order to sink or destroy all enemy fleet, the submarine USS Sea Tiger sustains major damage in a Japanese air raid. Lieutenant Commander Matt Sherman, its first and only captain, in lamenting the fact that the Sea Tiger has never seen active battle in its one year of service, is able to convince Capt. J.B. Henderson, rather than sending it to the junk yard, to let his crew make the minor repairs required for it to become at least seaworthy so that they can make the two thousand mile voyage to Darwin, the closest full service naval yard, where all the necessary repairs can be done properly in order for it to be sent back into commission. One problem is that these minor repairs necessarily need to be accomplished within two weeks. Another problem is by the time the decision is made, many of the crew have been reassigned leaving Sherman with a skeleton crew. And a third seemingly just as big a problem is that Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Nicholas Holden is assigned to the crew, he generally attired in dress whites or non-regulation designer clothes, he whose only role in the war has been to make his own life and that of other senior officers and their wives fun and comfortable far away from any danger. Holden is aware that this assignment is outside his comfort zone, but he still wants to play his part working to his strengths of understanding how to operate outside "regulation" so that he can move onto his next more appropriate assignment once they reach Darwin whatever that comfortable assignment may be. Beyond the issue of the sub's seaworthiness or lack thereof with these band-aid repairs and the perils of the war still raging, they face further issues in the seeming incompatibility of male submarine life with an infusion of the feminine in more ways than one en route to Darwin.—Huggo