Calam and Adriana purchase a 70 ft schooner in Florida, and invite old friends to join them on a holiday to sail to Canada. They meet at Key Largo, and plan the voyage assisted by Mike a retired geologist turned beach comber. A sea trial takes the Schooner a good distance out to sea. They return to Key Largo to discover a huge part of the USA is decimated by a massive binary gas attack, and rescue Peter, an ex-special forces diver. Calam decides to fully stock and arm the schooner. His intention to sail the Atlantic is hidden from the crew until they are well under way. The Schooner departs Key Largo, a beautiful woman and 18 month child is found by the waterway leading to the sea. The voyage commences, its crew makes frantic efforts to get fit. At New York they are attacked by a speeding gun boat trying to take-over their only means of escape. The Schooner proceeds to Newfoundland. They meet a US Navy missile submarine that has been in action. In Newfoundland the crew prepare to cross the Atlantic Ocean. A coastguard cutter escorts them into the Atlantic in the belief that the USA has been hit by a plague. The Schooner survives a classic storm in the Atlantic. The Schooner chances upon 'Air Force One' in the sea. The US President emerges from the life rafts, and persuades the Schooner to give passage for a vital purpose. The Schooner, dangerously short of food, finds the US 6TH fleet. A Captain comes aboard. The full story is told. The attack on the USA was also to have been a nuclear one, and certain key cities in Europe are still at risk. The Captain takes his President to the Flagship, where control of the Presidency is re-established over a skeptical admiral. Action is taken to find the nuclear weapons to save the European cities from danger. Replenished by the US Navy, they settle down to the final leg of their journey, and enter Lisbon at night. Calam and Adrianna take a well earned rest in Portugal before returning with the Schooner.