With their ten year old daughter Ronnie, Doctors Michael and Sarah Stone cruise the remote corners of the Pacific in their hospital sailing boat.
When they are radioed by a huge liquefied gas carrier, the "Dallas Belle", lying off a remote atoll, it seems that a typical maritime emergency has come up. Leaving Michael to investigate a tiny native canoe beached on the atoll, Sarah and Ronnie set off to the massive ship.
Alone on the atoll, Michael is then stunned to see the "Dallas Belle" simply sail away with his wife and child.
Hundred of miles from even the nearest radio, he must undertake an epic journey in the half-wrecked canoe in order to find help, while Sarah and Ronnie realise with growing horror that they are caught up in an audacious and terrifying plot that will rock the world.