The date was September 13, 1942. The location was the North Atlantic just west of the Norwegian coast.

How would a 22-year-old, with no combat experience, react to days of massive, concerted attacks by German U-boats and bombers against his Liberty Ship in a large convoy?

What were his thoughts? Where does he dispose of his dreams, his fond memories of recent love lost in Scotland, his reaction to changes in his own life?

For Deck Cadet Jack Dodd, caught up in a shocking new reality, as bullets fly, shells crack, and torpedoes streak through the sea in this hell on earth-as men are dying all around him and the skeletal residents of bombed-out Archangel wander aimlessly-the question is: Will his soul survive?