This book reports on the Terdal family's escape on a fishing boat to the Shetland Islands. It reviews Norwegian resistance to the Nazi-occupation and efforts by clergy to help Jews avoid deportation.

Germany invaded Norway with a massive military force in April 1940. The author describes the Norwegian resistance movement including their effort to help Jews avoid Nazi death camps. Much of the resistance movement was led by clergy from the Norwegian Lutheran church and by school teachers. Section two describes our escape from western Norway via a fishing boat to Scotland, and then on a Norwegian freighter to Canada. On each leg of our trip we experienced a military attack from either a German airplane or a submarine attack. I was four years old at the time of our escape; one of my brothers was eight years old, and our younger brother was eighteen months old. My mother made all the arrangements and experienced the brunt of the stress of our escape, because my father had already escaped previously.
The final section of the book focuses on reflections by us three brothers, now some sixty years after our escape. We have come to a painful realization that anti-Semitism has a long history in our Christian churches (Protestant and Catholic) that contributed to the silence and even collaboration with the Nazi plans for the holocaust.

Beyond Acceptable Risk reports on ten Northwest Sea Disasters of charter boats and commercial fishing vessels, and points out guidelines for safety at sea for recreational boaters and commercial operators.