At the height of its New Year revels, luxury ocean liner Poseidon is capsized by a massive tidal wave caused by an undersea earthquake. A handful of survivors must fight for their lives against appalling odds, struggling through the entrails of the stricken vessel in a nightmare race to get to the hull, the only part above water, before the ship sinks. Faced with rising water, panic, desperation and the death throes of the liner, they must do whatever they can to survive and make to the rescue they hope is coming. Front and back cover shows scenes from Irwin Allen's 1972 film of the same name; this is not a novelisation of the film - it is the original text of Gallico's 1969 novel.