Daniel Core, a gunner's mate from Charleston, SC, is serving on a two-stack destroyer in the Coral Sea just a week after the devastation of Pearl Harbor when they are attacked, and every officer is killed. Before he died of his wounds, Mr. Begley promoted him to acting Captain as a Warrant Officer. Now he must fight the fire, the enemy, the elements, and the sea. Can he rise to the occasion and get the ship and crew to safety?