For more than a decade， the worlds oceans have been home to Michael and Sarah Stone--and the only Home their eleven-year-old daughter Ronnie has ever known. Doctors and idealists， the Stones have forsaken dry land and a comfortable life to live and work aboard their thirty-eight-foot yacht Veronica--sailing to remote and inaccessible places to offer medical aid to those in need. But somewhere in the equatorial Pacific their shared life of freedom and purpose is shattered by a bizarre and terrifying event.A gargantuan commercial vessel--a Liquid Natural Gas carrier--appears where it has no business being， radioing a medical distress call that the Stones cannot ignore. Left behind to tend to an ailing islander on a deserted atoll in the middle of nowhere， Michael watches as Sarah and Ronnie set off to answer the ships call--first with curiosity， then with horror. For as he looks on helplessly， Veronica is hauled onto the deck of the hulking metal behemoth， which then steams away with his wife and daughter aboard.Stranded and alone--with only a primitive， damaged canoe at his disposal and no navigational equipment except the stars--Michael Stone must now do the impossible. He must find and rescue his kidnapped family， lost somewhere on the vast and merciless ocean--a mission that leads him through deadly winter gales and turbulent tides to the teeming cities of the Far East， where determined killers await his arrival. . .cold-blooded assassins who inexplicably know hes coming. Meanwhile， on board an enormous， seagoing prison， Sarah and Ronnie must somehow struggle to survive the cruel whims of their captor， Mr. Jack--a powerful， enigmatic and obsessed madman who is planning a massive act of revenge.