Silent and lethal, "USS Seawolf", the US Navy's state-of-the-art stealth submarine, is on an ultra secret mission - to spy on China's brand new, ICBM "Xia"-Class submarine.
The "Xia" is the menacing flagship of China's burgeoning Navy build-up. With American security under greater threat than ever before, "Seawolf's" mission is urgent. So urgent, the submarine is forced into hugely dangerous waters, where disaster is permanently moments away. Slowly they creep through the murky depths of the forbidden South China Sea until, late one night, the executive officer Lieutenant Commander Linus Clarke makes a shocking mistake and collides with a Chinese warship. "Seawolf's" entire crew is taken captive.
With the SEAL team on its way, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Navy is unaware that among his captives he may have a prize greater than all the rest put together: Clarke, an officer whose real identity has been carefully hidden from everyone, even his fellow crew members. But the White House's Admiral Morgan knows how desperate the situation really is and he must get "Seawolf's" crew out whatever the cost. It's a race against the clock, a race in which the stakes are almost too high to bear. A hair-raising struggle between the American Eagle and the Chinese Dragon.