This is the story of the war sailors and their families during and after World War II. We follow the sailor Alfred, a working class boy and newlywed father of three. When the war breaks out, he and his comrade Sigbjørn are at work on a merchant ship in the middle of the Atlantic. They are ordered to the front in a war they have not requested, in civilian clothes and without weapons. The two men fight to survive in a downward spiral of violence and death, where German submarines can attack the ship at any time loaded with equipment necessary for the Allied war effort. The war sailors have one goal: to survive - to get home.