Andrew Kinnear has dreamt of becoming a ship's engineer and traveling the world. But as his apprenticeship at Dalrossan Dockyard begins, he quickly realizes there is much more to his dream than he's bargained for. There are unwritten rules in his new workplace that he will break at his peril - a fearsome pecking order, and strange rites of initiation... Who are his allies, and who are his enemies? In sorting this out, Andrew can only watch in horror...