Marlin Todd is a young man with a bright future, a pilot's license--and a drinking problem.
During a night of hard partying in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in 1983, Marlin wins an old watch from a retired Pan Am pilot. The odd thing is, he can't recall too many details about the actual game of pool he played with the man. And his prize he won changes his life abruptly and profoundly.
He begins to experience things he can't understand and strange dreams that seem too real to be just dreams. Soon, the line between reality and imagination becomes perilously blurry for him. Sleep deprivation and crushing anxiety begin to take their toll, and Marlin begins to fear that he is losing his mind. He struggles to understand which reality is the one he can trust.
Then one night, a family tragedy is brought to vivid life when Marlin wakes up on Midway Island in 1938. Knowing his beloved grandfather was a pilot onboard the Hawaii Clipper, a Pan Am flying boat that disappeared somewhere between Guam and Manila in 1938, Marlin willingly becomes part of the Clipper's ill-fated crew. Lost in an episode, and despite escalating tensions aboard, Marlin struggles to save his grandfather from an untimely death. It doesn't take him long, however, to discover that changing the past isn't quite as easy as it may seem.