Young Harvey Cheyne is rich, spoiled, prejudiced, and totally lacking in the real experiences of life. When the fifteen-year-old is accidentally washed overboard a great ocean liner headed for Europe, he is picked up by a fisherman and brought aboard the fishing schooner We're Here.

Harvey's stories of privilege and wealth mean nothing aboard this hard-working vessel, and the boy receives many lessons in self-reliance, values, and hard-bitten reality - "things every man must know, blind, drunk, or asleep" - in the words of Long Jack. Harvey, Long Jack, Tom Platt, Manuel, and many more great characters come alive in this rich retelling of life aboard the We're Here.