After the infamous sinking of the RMS Titanic, a formal British Board of Trade inquiry about the disaster is called. During the proceedings, the serious allegation that another ship, the Californian, saw the sinking ship and its distress signals, but failed to render assistance is a topic of particular interest. While Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian pressures his officers to keep to his cover story, his immediate subordinates find themselves not only under official scrutiny, but quarreling about themselves about the events of that night. As a result, they are all confronted with a moral dilemma about where their true duty really lies.