For David Philpott, a successful middle-aged land-developer, the rebellion against his "perfect" life begins innocently enough with his decision to buy a bicycle. Soon he is cycling several miles a day before breakfast; then he decides to bicycle to his annual Florida vacation. The next stop is riding across Canada. This bike journey only whets Philpott's appetite for adventure, however, and soon he becomes preoccupied with the ultimate challenge: a solo sail around the world. From Halifax he sails to Bermuda, the Caribbean, and then out into the Atlantic. During the endless days on the water, Philpott goes back over his life, his attitudes, his accomplishments and dissatisfactions, in a rite of passage that turns into catastrophe when a storm wrecks his boat, leaving him helpless and drifting, running out of food and water, and coming to grips with the increasing certainty that he will die alone at sea.