The situation: Desperate. A small group of German nationals are trapped in Brazil during WWII - and the Allies are winning. The people: A crew of twenty-two men and five nuns aboard the Deutschland, a three-masted 19th-century sailing vessel. The plan: Slip out of a Brazilian port at the mouth of the Amazon undetected. Destination: Wartorn Germany. The route: Five thousand miles of storm-swept ocean, barricaded by menacing guns and the military might of America and Great Britain.