A violent hurricane destroys a luxury cruise ship, leaving Lucan, Thera, and seven other survivors stranded on an uncharted island. Fresh water, food, and shelter become matters of life and death. Lucan uses his wilderness experience to build a survival system based on labor and shared responsibility, while Thera warns him that rules enforced only by fear will turn him into the very kind of tyrant they oppose. Through storms, infection, shortages, and bitter conflict, the group sheds its former privilege, learns cooperation, and eventually earns rescue. Lucan and Thera turn survival into the foundation of a life together.
