In September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its path: El Faro, a 790-foot ship with a crew of 33, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships, Tristram Korten weaves a tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, and the Coast Guard's extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction. As Korten also relates in this true story, the two ships and their crews would meet different fates.