Leesa Mercer, a young female engineer, reaches for success in the mans world of the offshore oil industry of the mid 1980s. The backdrop for her struggle includes blowouts, chauvinists, romance, trapped divers and violent confrontations between oil companies and environmentalists. The storys climax occurs when a major offshore construction project, managed by Leesa, meets both human and physical disaster. Leesas challenge is to see if she can mature sufficiently to save a situation, a construction crew and a community who depend on her leadership.