Flight of Dreams

Set aboard the Hindenburg during its final voyage from Frankfurt, Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey, in May 1937, the novel follows five characters over three and a half days as their secrets, ambitions, and desires converge in catastrophe.

The story opens at post-disaster hearings on May 10, where navigator Max Zabel watches investigators debate sabotage theories. He has already decided to lie under oath, claiming the flight was uneventful, to protect the people he cares about. The narrative then loops back to May 3, when passengers and crew board the hydrogen-filled airship in Frankfurt.

Emilie Imhof, the Hindenburg's stewardess and the first woman ever to work aboard an airship, is a widow mourning her husband Hans, who drowned 10 years earlier. She wears his skeleton key on a chain around her neck, a relic from the inn they once owned. Max, a navigator who also serves as postmaster, has been courting Emilie and has asked for an answer to his romantic overtures on this flight. She is drawn to him but resists surrendering to love again. She harbors two dangerous secrets: She is half-Jewish, her mother's maiden name being Abramson, and she has been assembling immigration documents to defect to America when the ship lands.

Gertrud Adelt, a journalist whose press card was revoked by the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda, boards with her husband Leonhard, a writer 22 years her senior. Their infant son Egon has been left with Gertrud's mother at the insistence of an SS officer, a form of blackmail to guarantee their return to Germany. Werner Franz, the 14-year-old cabin boy, works to support his sick father. On the first day he meets Irene Doehner, a passenger his age, and a shy flirtation begins; he promises to bring her flowers.

The most dangerous passenger travels under the stolen identity of Edward Douglas, an American who was murdered before departure so the impostor could take his place. Hidden in his cabin are a Luger pistol and a military identification tag belonging to the man he intends to kill: a crew member who served on a German zeppelin that bombed a hospital in Coventry, England, in 1918, killing the impostor's brother. On the first night, the American picks the mailroom lock with a stolen fork and plants a coded letter in the Cologne mailbag.

As the airship crosses the Atlantic, the characters' lives become entangled. Max visits Emilie's cabin to say goodnight, and they share a passionate first kiss. When she is called away to help Margaret Mather, an American heiress struggling with her corset, Max accidentally knocks open Emilie's closet and discovers her immigration documents and American dollars. Devastated, he scrawls an angry note and leaves. Their confrontation the next morning is bitter: Emilie argues that war is coming, that Jews face escalating persecution, and that she refuses to be left a widow again. Max insists she has him.

The American manipulates everyone around him. He steals jewelry from Margaret's steamer trunk to use as poker stakes, pays Werner to feed a neglected dog in the cargo hold, and alters the shipping manifest to implicate Max. Gertrud finds a military identification tag in the ship's shower and connects it to the American. She enlists Emilie's help identifying the owner. Emilie recognizes the tag as belonging to Ludwig Knorr, the chief rigger and a war veteran, but initially withholds the name.

Max confides Emilie's defection plan to Wilhelm Balla, a steward, who passes the information along. Captain Ernst Lehmann and Commander Pruss search Emilie's cabin, forcing Max to locate her hidden documents. Her papers are confiscated, and she is ordered to continue her service to avoid embarrassing the Zeppelin-Reederei, the company that operates the Hindenburg. Emilie views Max's role in the search as an unforgivable betrayal.

The American dines with Lehmann and trades information: He names Emilie as the crew member planning to stay in America and asks for the identity of the tag's owner. Lehmann tells him the tag belongs to Heinrich Kubis, the chief steward, contradicting Gertrud's earlier identification of Knorr. During a poker game in the crew's mess, the American confirms that Knorr is the only player who served on zeppelins during the Great War. He has found his target.

On the third day, Max drinks himself into a stupor, and Werner enlists Xaver Maier, the head chef, to help sober him up. Still impaired, Max nearly steers the Hindenburg into the cliffs of Newfoundland. The near-disaster shakes him profoundly. Emilie reveals her Jewish heritage to Max, who responds that it changes nothing and proposes marriage. Matilde Doehner, Irene's mother, also offers Emilie a path to freedom: a job as governess, with a plan to walk her off the ship using the children as camouflage. Emilie is torn.

On the final day, persistent headwinds delay the Hindenburg by 10 hours. Max steals Emilie's papers back from the officers' safe and returns them to her, declaring his love. Emilie decides she cannot leave him. She writes a letter accepting his proposal and has it placed in the mailroom lockbox.

Lehmann confines the American to his cabin under armed guard after complaints about his unauthorized wanderings through restricted areas. The American cuts through the thin foam-board wall with a stolen steak knife and escapes into the ship's interior. He finds Knorr on the keel catwalk, staring at a gas cell punctured by a broken girder, hydrogen visibly leaking. Pointing Max's stolen Luger at Knorr, the American reveals that the real Edward Douglas is dead and the identity was stolen. Knorr begs him not to fire, warning it will kill everyone aboard. The American pulls the trigger, and the muzzle flash ignites the hydrogen.

The Hindenburg burns in 34 seconds. Max jumps from the control car and survives because the forward landing wheel causes the ship to rebound, giving him time to escape. Werner is saved when an overhead water ballast breaks loose and drenches him; he kicks open a hatch and runs from beneath the collapsing structure. Gertrud and Leonhard help Matilde throw her young sons from the observation windows before jumping themselves. Irene, who wandered away searching for her father, does not escape. Emilie, knocked unconscious by the initial blast, crawls toward Max's voice but does not survive.

In the aftermath, Max searches the makeshift infirmary all night before learning that Emilie has been identified by her dental fillings. He sits vigil beside her body until the charred lockbox is delivered to him. Inside he finds her letter, her skeleton key, and her answer: yes. Days later, he discovers his stolen Luger in the wreckage with one round missing and understands what destroyed the Hindenburg. At the Board of Inquiry, investigators dismiss sabotage for lack of evidence. Max does not tell them the truth.

The novel closes with three epilogues. Werner celebrates his 15th birthday aboard a steamship and is offered a permanent position on the Graf Zeppelin, another airship. Before leaving the crash site, he lays wildflowers on Irene Doehner's body, honoring his promise. Max visits Emilie's grave in Frankfurt, reading her letter every evening at 7:25, the moment the fire broke out, and wearing her key beneath his uniform. Gertrud and Leonhard return to Frankfurt, where the Gestapo has been watching. Gertrud enters Egon's room, and her son takes three triumphant steps toward her. They are home.