When the cargo ship Chapelon is ordered to sail from her home port of
Dunkirk just two days before Christmas, her crew is less than pleased.
Not only were their hopes of celebrating with their loved ones wrecked,
they also knew they were about to sail into rough and turbulent seas.
In a storm of unprecedented fury that is encountered off the north-east
coast of England, the ship experiences an engine room explosion that
leaves her disabled and at the mercy of the furious wind blowing her
towards the shore. Efforts to find a tug to assist Chapelon prove to be
fruitless and a life boat and helicopter that are dispatched to aid the
distressed ship and rescue her crew themselves become overwhelmed in the
atrocious conditions being experienced.
When Chapelon's grounding becomes an obvious and imminent certainty, her
crew's very survival becomes reliant upon a local coastguard coming up
with a last-ditch plan.