'There's some bad weather out there,' Captain MacWhirr said to himself just before he sailed his ship, the emNan-Shan/em, into the middle of the most terrible storm in the South China Sea. The typhoon brings out the best in some men on the ship, and the worst in others. Can MacWhirr bring the ship through the storm safely? And what will happen to all the poor Chinese workers travelling home down in the ship's hold?