Seventeen-year-old Spotty clerks at a London ship insurance company. His supervisor, Basil, has been obsessed with shipwrecks ever since his teenage crush, Elsie, sneaked aboard the Mary Celeste bound from New York to London. Spotty decides to help Basil find her. Their best clue is a bottle containing a passenger's diary, but they're not the only ones after it!
The fate of the Mary Celeste is one of the greatest mysteries in maritime history. It was found with no passengers and all sails set, off the Azores, 12 years before our story, which alternates between Spotty and Basil's investigation, Elsie’s diary up until the shipwreck, and flashbacks to the love story between rich heiress Elsie and grocer's son Basil, building to a shattering climax.