On a May night in 1914, the ocean liner Empress of Ireland, with 1500 passengers, sets out from Quebec, bound for England via the St. Lawrence River, its captain unaware that a coal freighter is steaming toward them. As a dense fog rolls in; the freighter rams the Empress, gouging a massive hole in its hull. A tidal wave of water pours in, the ship begins to list, its engines fail, and its lights go out, leaving passengers struggling in the dark, through a maze of flooded corridors. One of those passengers is 20-year-old Bridey Collins, a domestic drudge for a wealthy family. Bridey looks for her fiance Sean, knowing he'll see to it she's safe, only to watch as Sean escapes on the last boat, abandoning Bridey to her fate. Flung overboard, devastated by Sean's betrayal, Bridey is tempted to give up, let herself sink.

But she's 3 months pregnant--if she dies, so will her baby. She can't let that happen! In freezing water, unable to swim, surrounded by corpses, Bridey must somehow find a way to survive--for herself and her baby.

The ship sinks in just 14 minutes, drowning over a thousand passengers. But a few fight to survive: Marie, the ship's cook, who crews a boat filled with panicked women: Charlie, a scrappy 12-yr. old stowaway, and Snapper, the scrawny steward who rescues 20 terrified children. All find their courage tested to the limits; all will find, in years to come, that the horror of this night has affected their lives in unexpected ways.