Based on the memoir by Nick Schuyler, the story follows four friends - Schuyler along with NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, and Schuyler's best friend, Will Bleakley, a former University of South Florida football player - who were on a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico when their boat capsized, stranding the four men at sea. In the days that followed, the men fought to survive as they awaited to see if help would come.