When the huge steamship on which they are traveling runs aground off the New Jersey coast in 1882, two boys and their families are among the passengers dramatically rescued by members of the U.S. Life Saving Service. Includes notes about the event on which the story is based.

Alternates between the tales of Angus Seaton, the youngest crew member on a boat recovering bodies from the Titanic wreckage in 1912, and Kevin Messenger, a modern-day class clown in Victoria, British Columbia, who helps lay a victim's spirit to rest.

Stranded after a shipwreck, brothers Mason and Asher accompany their new friend Luna to an underwater haven where they are forced to endure a region of unknown hazards.

Readers are placed in the character of a passenger aboard the Titanic on the night of its fatal sinking, and are challenged to survive by making choices that result in dozens of possible endings.