A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.

Fulta Fisher runs a boarding house catering to seamen passing through the port. A girl known as Anne of Austria has had many lovers amongst the sailors, but presently she's known to be the "property" of Salem Hardieker, a tough Bostonian. When Anne's eye drifts to a new potential lover, Hans the Dane, he spurns her, knowing she's Salem's girl. But hell hath no fury like a woman scorned....