At the height of the Blitz in World War II, two British boys, Stanley and his younger brother Tommy, are invited by the US President's grandson William to come to live in the United States. But when the ship they are travelling on is torpedoed and sunk en route, the two boys, plus nine other children, find themselves marooned on an island in the Atlantic. When news of the sinking reaches America, William is distraught and guilt-ridden, but insists on continuing his search for the missing children, even when his grandfather insists that there no realistic hope that they could have survived.