Fifty years after World War II, John Durchick, the town English teacher, makes a startling discovery about his elderly neighbor, Harry. This discovery takes John and Harry's mysterious niece, Pamela, to the Outer Banks. While at the Outer Banks, John meets Chrissy McCarthy, a beautiful diver with a theory about a missing U-boat. Against the backdrop of Hurricane Emily, John and Chrissy pursue the truth about Harry, a lost U-boat, and discrepancies between German and American war records concerning merchant ships sunk on January 18th, 1942. Others, however, are determined to stop them from uncovering secrets best left buried in the ocean off Nags Head in a tale of treachery and betrayal.