It's January 16, 1942. Veteran Navy pilot Harold Dixon, and his young crew - radioman Gene Aldrich, and bombardier Tony Pastula - take off from the deck of aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to search for Japanese submarines in the glistening waters of the South Pacific. The three men are virtual strangers, assigned to spend an afternoon together in a single-engine torpedo bomber. They should be back on the ship in time for dinner.

But instead of dinner, evening instead finds the men adrift on a dark ocean in a tiny rubber raft, forced to ditch their plane after they somehow lost their carrier...then their remaining fuel...then the setting sun. Most significantly, the plane itself sank to the ocean floor, carrying with it nearly all of their emergency supplies. No first aid kit, no signaling device, no compass, no food, no water.

Thus begins "Against the Sun", the incredible account of a 34-day odyssey that has become a Navy legend. Dixon, Aldrich, and Pastula cast adrift on the high seas, assaulted by sharks and storms, burning in the relentless sun, starving to death.

Faced with these long odds - when it would be easier to simply roll into the dark water and embrace death's relief - the three men challenge the fates to set them free.