Sisters of Fortune

In February 1912, Alice Fortune, a young Canadian woman on a grand tour of Europe and the Mediterranean with her family, receives an unsettling fortune from an Egyptian soothsayer at Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. The man warns that she is "in danger every time you travel on the sea" and predicts she will be adrift in an open boat and lose everything but her life. Her companion, William Sloper, a young man from Connecticut, dismisses the prediction as a common trick, but the words linger in Alice's mind.

The Fortune family hails from Winnipeg, Canada. Mark Fortune, the family patriarch, travels with his wife Mary and four of their six children: Flora (28), who postponed her spring wedding to Toronto banker Crawford Campbell to chaperone her siblings; Alice, engaged to Holden Allen; Mabel (23), who pretends to be attached to Harrison Driscoll, an ineligible ragtime musician, to provoke her parents; and Charlie (19). Three Winnipeg bachelors the family has dubbed the "Three Musketeers" also accompany them.

On April 10, 1912, the family boards the RMS Titanic at Southampton for its maiden voyage and settles into a suite of cabins on C-Deck. That evening at Cherbourg, new passengers board, including Chess Kinsey, a tennis star and attorney from New York. Chess is a second son from a wealthy family, expected to be charming but never taken seriously, despite years of hard work on and off the court. When Sloper introduces Chess to the Fortune sisters, Flora rebuffs his flirtation, having overheard him fail to dissuade their acquaintance Quigg Baxter from secretly bringing his mistress aboard.

Over the following days, each sister pursues a private agenda. Mabel's true desire is not Harrison Driscoll but permission to attend university. She seeks out accomplished women aboard, including Dr. Alice Leader, a physician, and the author and suffragette Helen Churchill Candee, who warns that convincing her father will be only the first of many obstacles. Alice, dreading the sheltered life Holden has planned, confides her restlessness to Mrs. Margaret Brown, the lively Denver socialite, who advises her to "begin as you mean to go on." Alice also begins attending private poker games, staying out late and returning to the cabin smelling of cigarettes.

Flora's composure begins to crack. After she sharply rebukes Chess for his mocking manner, he drops his roguish facade and admits he is more than the carefree persona his family expects. Over successive days they discover shared passions, from exploration narratives to a mutual impatience with the roles others have assigned them. When Flora finds Jenny, the ship's cat, with her claw snagged in a locker, Chess helps free the animal and accompanies Flora below to return Jenny to her kittens. His kindness stands in sharp contrast to what Flora imagines Crawford would do, and she begins to acknowledge that she does not love Crawford and is falling for Chess.

Tensions mount. Alice and Flora quarrel after Alice accuses Flora of disloyalty to Crawford, projecting her own guilt over secret gambling. On Sunday, April 14, Mabel confronts her father directly, asking to attend university to study law. He refuses, insisting her place is at home. When Mabel threatens to marry Harrison, her father warns he will cut off her inheritance.

That same day, Flora and Chess spend hours strolling the deck. They encounter the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Straus—Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy's department store, and his wife, a couple beloved aboard for their devoted forty-year marriage—who advise Flora to find a kind man and "cleave to him." As the sun sets, Chess kisses Flora for the first time. Her mother catches them and is furious. Later that night, Flora sneaks out to meet Chess, who tells her that her father has agreed: If Chess's finances prove legitimate and Flora properly ends things with Crawford, he may propose. Flora accepts.

At approximately 11:40 p.m., the sisters feel a sharp jolt and metallic scraping. Flora glimpses an iceberg past the porthole. The engines fall silent. They dress warmly and go above deck, where ice litters the forward Well Deck. Thomas Andrews, the ship's architect and chief shipbuilder, briefly assures passengers there is no cause for concern, but the eerie quiet and the blast of steam from the funnels tell a different story. Chess finds the family and shares that stokers have reported water flooding the boiler rooms. Thomson Beattie, one of the Winnipeg companions, arrives with news that the captain has ordered life belts and lifeboats.

The family separates. Flora and Chess cross to the starboard side, hoping to find boats accepting men, while Alice, Mabel, Charlie, and their parents wait on the port side. Rockets burst overhead. On the starboard side, Flora discovers all the forward boats are gone and water is creeping over the bow. Her father refuses to take a seat that should belong to a woman. Overwhelmed, Flora bolts down the Grand Staircase. Chess catches her in a revolving door, calms her, and tells her he loves her, asking her to board a lifeboat so he can focus on his own survival. Passing through the First-Class Smoking Room, they find Andrews standing before the fireplace, paralyzed with grief.

On the port side, Father kisses Mother and orders her into Lifeboat 10, calling Mabel "Mabes" and promising to catch the next boat. The women leap across a gap caused by the ship's list. Flora and Chess return to the port Boat Deck, where Chess escorts her to Collapsible D, the last lifeboat launched. He tells her, "Don't you ever forget how extraordinary you are, Flora Fortune," and presses his lips to her temple. As the boat lowers, Flora sees the Strauses at the rail, and Mrs. Straus calls out, "God go with you."

Chess is swept overboard while trying to free an overturned collapsible from the roof of the Officers' Quarters. He surfaces next to Collapsible B, the capsized raft, and hauls himself aboard alongside Second Officer Lightoller and about two dozen others. They spend hours standing on the overturned hull, balancing against the waves. From the lifeboats, the Fortune women watch the Titanic's stern rise, hear the ship crack in two, and see it plunge beneath the waves.

At dawn, the rescue ship Carpathia arrives. Chess and the survivors of Collapsible B are the last rescued. Aboard the Carpathia, Mabel finds Chess alive but with severe frostbite; a doctor has recommended amputation of his legs, but Chess chooses to exercise them continuously to try to save them. Flora runs through the ship and finds him. The sisters learn that all lifeboats have been accounted for: Their father and Charlie are gone.

Mabel throws herself into relief work with Margaret Brown, organizing clothing for destitute survivors and comforting orphaned children. Alice tends to their devastated mother. On Thursday evening, the Carpathia arrives in New York amid a frenzy of press boats and onlookers. Holden Allen, eldest sister Clara, and Clara's husband Herbert meet them at the pier. Crawford Campbell has not come.

At the Hotel Belmont, reporters besiege the family. Alice confesses her gambling to Holden, who forgives her and promises to support her desire to travel. Mabel reveals her university ambitions to her sisters, and Flora explains their father's deeper motivation: Having watched his own mother work herself to death, he saw his daughters' freedom from labor as the mark of his success. Mabel is stricken that she never understood. Flora and Chess meet secretly one last time and acknowledge they must be apart while she grieves and properly ends her engagement.

The Fortune women return to Winnipeg on May 1. Neither Mark's nor Charlie's body is recovered. Flora ends her engagement to Crawford, who accepts without protest. Alice and Holden marry on June 8. Mabel, refused permission by brother Robert to attend university, channels her energy into charitable work and the suffrage movement. Over the summer, Flora and Chess exchange dozens of letters. His legs recover, though he loses one toe. In late September, on Flora's twenty-ninth birthday, Chess appears on the Fortune family's front porch with Robert's permission to propose. He kneels and asks her to marry him. She says yes, and they walk together into the future hand in hand.