Jess Hanna is shanghaied aboard a whaling ship. Unlike most boys in the 1820s, Jess has no desire for the danger of a sailor's life, and he suffers greatly from the filth and backbreaking labor of the whaler. From the beginning, the voyage is beset by storms, accidents, and an evil scheme of the first mate to "lose" the ship and its cargo in the icy Antarctic Sea. But Jess, who never intended a whaler's career, grows to maturity during this time at sea and learns that justice is not easily attained.