When China claims the entire South China Sea and all the islands as its sovereign territory, more than 1.4 million square miles of ocean become a part of China, including waters more than 1200 miles from the Chinese coast. For centuries these waters have belonged to the seven nations bordering them along with billions of barrels of undersea oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. When China uses its navy to enforce these claims, sinking an aged Philippine warship that had once been an American WWII destroyer, the world finds itself on the brink of war.
A young American couple and a old Chinese woman from whom the government has taken everything become pawns in China’s cynical ploy. But though the Chinese woman is broken, she is not bowed. She and the young Americans, both children of former US Navy Seals, show China that the human spirit is more powerful than any warship.