The S.S. Balboa Victory has been in San Pedro for less than two weeks and already she has claimed another seaman's life. The World War Two era freighter, rumored to be haunted by dead seamen, has been in mothballs since the CIA last used her for covert operations in the Vietnam War. When Chief Engineer James Wierman is found murdered in one of the ship's cargo holds, Coast Guard Commander Jared Stanton and homicide detective Rachel Terazzo join forces on the case. The duo hits the docks of San Pedro to track down Wierman's killer and it's not long before the clues lead to a government cover-up that is decades old. Stanton learns about a lost gold shipment intended to fund the mercenary war in Vietnam. Stanton and Terazzo soon realize their lives are at stake because they know too much and it's a race against time and unseen adversaries to get to the truth before they become the ship's next victims.