In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy boards a huge liner bound for England. At mealtimes, he is placed at the lowly 'Cat's Table' with an eccentric group of grown-ups and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the seas, the boys become involved in the worlds and stories of the adults around them. And at night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner - his crime and fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever.