The film takes place on a sinking WWII warship that has just been struck by a torpedo and is rapidly going under. Florence’s captain, a war veteran and decorated hero, experiences a crisis of faith—worrying, for the first time in his life, that perhaps he might come across as desperate. He instructs his Morse code operator to send out a distress message but urges him to avoid sounding ‘overbearing’ — resulting in a confused and frustrated lifeboat team who ultimately decide to ‘sack it off’.
