This is the story of Henry Falk, who suffers from seasickness so badly he gets nauseous watching waves at the beach. Henry has fallen deeply in love with Julie Morris, an accomplished blue-water sailor, and when she asks him to sail with her across the Atlantic, Henry is powerless to refuse. He goes on board with a medley of meds concocted to deal with his seasickness, and they do a pretty good job, but with one serious side effect: they kill his libido. As the voyage goes on, Henry is unable to abide his failure as a lover, so he forsakes his meds, with disastrous consequences.