Nathan Hobbs, a onetime US navy captain dismissed for being drunk on duty and now the captain of a container ship, finds himself in serious trouble. Unless he can pay his gambling debts, he is liable to lose his fingers. Given this, when offered a large sum of money to accept two containers on his ship, Nathan is only too willing to agree. To his shock and horror, he later finds he has jumped from the frying pan into the fire. He has become the unwilling accomplice in a terrorist plot targeting America.