In the spring of 1941, Al Woods quits an Oklahoma college to join the armed forces after a quarrel with his co-ed sweetheart, Josephine 'Jo' Hill. He signs up for the Coast Guard, driven partly by luck and a flip of a coin, and quickly lands on a buoy tender in Boston called the Periwinkle, serving as a ship's cook despite having no real cooking experience. From day one, he faces hostility from Red Wildoe, the stern galley chief, from the ship’s new crew and cooks' helpers Sidney Gutsell and Poznicki, and from the department head who seems to look down on him. The atmosphere on board is tense, and Al’s adjustment is anything but smooth as he stumbles through basic tasks and stubborn pride.
In a dim Boston bar, Stella Papparonis captures his eye, and a strong attraction develops, though she appears to be cashing in her favors for something more substantial. To win her over, Al schemes to fix up [Sidney Gutsell] with one of Stella’s girlfriends, and he learns the ropes of galley life from [Red Wildoe], enduring a string of humiliating cooking mishaps. Frustration mounts when Stella won’t share a hotel room with him, prompting Al to pull back from the affair. A night of heavy drinking with [Red Wildoe] bonds the two men, and soon, Wildoe begins seeing Stella on his own terms, with Al’s reluctant blessing. Then comes the attack on Pearl Harbor and the full outbreak of war, which accelerates the ship’s tempo and the men’s emotions. In the wake of war, [Red Wildoe] abruptly proposes to Stella and they marry, a decision that unleashes jealousy and a ripple of confrontations aboard.
Aboard the Periwinkle, Al earns the position of chief cook, taking charge of meals and morale. Meanwhile, Ensign Dennis Higgins is promoted to executive officer, and his increasingly unscrupulous behavior—pocketing the difference between officer meals and the ledger—begins to gnaw at the crew’s trust. He also cuts corners on food quality to keep the mess budget balanced, and things take a personal turn when he objects to finding Al’s hair in his food, prompting Al to shave his head and earn the nickname Onionhead. The mounting tension prompts Al to consider reporting the theft to the District Office, but he initially thinks the entire officer corps is in on the scam and proceeds by bypassing proper channels.
During a leave back home for his father’s funeral, Al reconnects with Jo and realizes she is the woman he truly loves. In port again, Wildoe asks Al to bring Stella back from the bar when he’s recalled to his ship, and Stella makes one last bid for his affection, attempting to seduce him. He rebuffs her with blunt honesty, calling her a tramp, and she doesn’t hesitate to retort, “I can't help what I am.”
The Periwinkle earns a hard-won victory when it sinks a submarine, with Al playing a major role in the action. Yet his unproven accusation of embezzlement hangs over the captain and threatens to stain the ship’s reputation during the board of investigation. Rather than press his case publicly, Al secretly slips the captain the evidence he’s found, choosing to protect the crew’s standing even as the situation grows more precarious. In a tense meeting with the captain and the executive officer, Al learns that the punishment for making an unsubstantiated accusation would be loss of rating and reassignment to Greenland if he hadn’t brought proof earlier. The captain rebukes him for not coming forward sooner, but grants him the chance to marry Jo before he is shipped out for Greenland, trusting that justice and duty must be balanced against personal happiness in the time of war. The story thus tracks a young man’s volatile mix of ambition, loyalty, and love as the world moves from peace to conflict, and as a tight-knit crew navigates both peril at sea and the storms of their own hearts.
> I can't help what I am.
