Adventures of Captain Fabian

In 1860, George Brissac presides over a grand New Orleans mansion and is engaged, yet secretly involved with Lea, a maid with a gypsy aunt named Jezebel. George's inheritance from his childless uncle depends on him staying out of trouble. The volatile romance threads through the city’s social fabric and foreshadows the storm to come.

Lea hosts a huge, drunken party at the mansion where a male admirer is rebuffed. When George returns, he kisses Lea, inflaming the admirer and triggering a violent confrontation. George is briefly knocked out, and Lea strikes the would-be suitor with his cane, killing him.

Fearing exposure, George decides to fabricate a story to shield himself from blame. He lies during Lea's murder trial, hoping to keep himself out of trouble and preserve his inheritance.

Brissac murders his own uncle after catching him kissing Lea, sealing Lea’s involvement in the escalating web of deceit. The murder compounds the danger surrounding Lea and the Brissac fortunes.

Lea insists that Brissac marry her to keep silent. Brissac's fiancé arrives with her family and is told of the new arrangement, leaving Lea to declare she will wait for George to come to his senses.

George marries Lea but quickly grows cool and feels tricked by the arrangement. New Orleans society shuns the couple, and with few allies, Lea and George remain as the only witnesses to the uncle's murder, choosing to stay silent.

Lea goes to Fabian’s ship, and while he sees through her manipulation, he yields and kisses her, declaring that he loves her. He reminds her she is now married, complicating any possible alliance.

Sensing Lea may be involved, George reports his uncle's disappearance to the police. He also buries an inscribed pocket watch bearing Fabian’s name with the uncle’s body, setting up a later misleading clue.

When the grave is found and the watch is discovered, the police jump to the conclusion George wants. Fabian is arrested in his bar, and his popularity complicates his detention with the townspeople rooting for him.

Fabian suspects Brissac as the murderer and understands why Brissac married Lea. Lea is believed to hold the key to which man will be hanged, intensifying the competition between them.

George hires a local crook to lynch Fabian and stage community justice. Aunt Jezebel and Fabian’s crew organize a rescue, freeing him and escaping through the catacombs to the docks, triggering a brutal confrontation.

Fabian and Brissac clash underwater; Fabian wins but his ship is wrecked. A powder explosion hurls the main mast down, crushing Lea on the dock as she dies in Fabian’s arms, uttering his name.