Martin Sheen and Charles Furness star in this drama about the dramatic sinking of the Nantucket whaleship Essex that was attacked by a sperm whale in 1820. An old Tom Nickerson (Sheen) recounts the story of when he and his crew were the subjects of a vicious attack by a normally peaceful animal and how they were left to fight for their lives as their ship and all their equipment sunk to the ocean floor. After the attack it was three months before the surviving men were rescued and as Tom (played, as a young man, by Furness) and his fellow survivors waited patiently, watching the days pass by, they were forced to endure a great deal to stay alive.