The cold war was nearly over by 1986, yet under the sea the deadly game of hide-and-seek played by Soviet and American submarines continued unabated. Off the east coast of America, an aging Soviet ballistic missile sub, a "boomer," suffered a crippling accident, coming within moments of a nuclear meltdown. Had her reactors exploded, the radioactivity released into the Gulf Stream would have dwarfed the Chernobyl disaster.

This is the gripping, true story of the young Soviet sailors who fought to save their submarine, risking fire, smoke, poison gas, and intense radioactivity. Their secret struggle and sacrifice saved the American coast from nuclear catastrophe. Told in the words of the survivors, it is a story never before revealed outside the submarine community.