The distance from California to Hawaii is more than 2500 miles, a daunting journey for any yacht. But for five young people, it has come to seem the only way back to families they have lost. Hiding from pursuers, learning as they go, they rely on Jason, and the eldest at 14, to captain the yacht Makai. But when Jason is injured in a storm, and his friend Jimmy comes down with bronchitis, it is up to his plucky sister Jenny, and Jenny’s beautiful, troubled friend Michelle to get them and five-year-old Christopher through it. Storms are not the only peril at sea however. Lost and starving themselves, they come across a pod of dolphins trapped in a drift net. With the days going by and their hunger and thirst growing, the youngsters find that these new found friends may make all the difference.