Hundreds of pleasure-seekers board The Beautiful Dreamer cruise ship for relaxation and fun in the Caribbean. For three sun-filled days, the journey seems to deliver all that the brochure promised. Until Day Four.

Without warning, the ship stops dead. Electricity and communications are cut off. Smoke pours out of the engine room. The passengers and crew have no way to call for help and are stranded in the Gulf of Mexico. At first, all aboard are certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon. All they have to do is wait. Supplies soon run low, the toilets stop working and a virus plagues the ship, but when the body of a woman is discovered in her cabin, irritation escalates to panic. There's a murderer on board The Beautiful Dreamer...and maybe something worse.