Chronicling the rebirth of a beautifully restored ocean liner, the Empress, on her "maiden" cruise to Bermuda in the summer of 1960 is the sort of assignment senior reporters would kill to get, so newcomer Lawrence Gray is puzzled when the hard-driving editor at his little Southern paper insists he take the duty. His selection is explained to him, first in strange nightmares and then in unnerving visions he can no longer dismiss, by the evil presence who's taken on the persona of the ship's namesake. The Empress won't rest in her diabolical mission to show Lawrence just what ignited her attraction: the darkness lurking in his own soul. She will even go so far as to use Lawrence's budding romance with the ship's beautiful pianist, Catherine Tourterelle, as a powerful weapon against him. Will the Empress force Lawrence to accept the past he's so successfully hidden, even from himself, or will she destroy him and the ship in the process?