Cap'n Warren's Wards is the first book by Joseph C. Lincoln that moves off the fictional towns of Cape Cod (in this case South Denboro) and into the big city hustle of Manhattan. Elijah Warren finds himself the guardian of his brother's children who are rapidly reaching adulthood but haven't had to face the harsh realities of self responsibility due to their father's wealth. Unfortunately now there are a few snags with A. Rodgers Warren's estate and Cap'n Warren decides its best to toughen his wards up and maybe teach them some humility in the process. Returning to his native Cape Cod village after many years of living at sea, Cy Whittaker finds the old homestead no longer the place of his boyhood. So-called "improvements" have been going on in his absence, and he finds it all sadly changed. The old man adopts the little daughter of a worthless drunkard, with the intent of giving the child an education. A Congressman from the district, years before, had appropriated property belonging to the child, and he, together with the father, fights to regain possession of the child. The sympathy of the village goes out to the father, but Cy Whittaker and Phoebe Dawes, the school teacher, manage to outwit the Congressman and the drunken father, and in the end the old bachelor and the school mistress fall in love with each other.