In 1940s Australia, when a 9-year-old Aboriginal boy arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun, his presence disturbs a delicately balanced world.

When their boat sinks while crossing the Timor Sea during World War II, a troop of young Australian soldiers must find a way to survive the harsh seas on a quickly shrinking raft. Hundreds of miles from anywhere, they must confront interpersonal conflicts, enemy attacks, and the advances of one very large, very hungry great white shark.