Aunt AJ is unexpectedly called away for work, and Robie convinces her to allow her to stay alone in the Honolulu apartment.

A man grabs Robie by the hair on the sidewalk outside AJ's building, mistaking her for someone named Lucy.

Robie boards a cargo plane bound for Midway and meets the young copilot Max for the first time.

The plane hits violent turbulence over the Pacific, oxygen masks drop, and overhead bins burst open.

Max opens the window exit of the nosediving plane and throws Robie out into the storm.

Max drags Robie out of the ocean by her hair and pulls her onto the inflatable raft.

Max lights a red flare and Robie watches the G-1 cargo plane slowly sink beneath the ocean surface.

Robie opens Max's ditty bag and discovers her name is completely absent from the flight manifest.

Robie lowers the unconscious Max into the ocean on a rope to lighten the dangerously leaking raft.

Robie leans over the raft to check on Max in the water and discovers he has vanished.

Max grabs Robie's hand from the water and hauls himself back onto the raft after swimming back alone.

Robie spots an island on the horizon and the raft is carried over a reef and flips, throwing her out.

Robie wakes on the beach of Lisianski Island with a swollen eye, finds the tattered raft, but no sign of Max.

Robie shouts at her vision of Max and admits aloud that the real Max has been dead since the crash.

Scientists from a NOAA research ship step onto the island beach and Robie runs toward them to be rescued.

Robie's adventure begins when her aunt is unexpectedly called away for work and leaves her alone in Honolulu, where a terrifying street attack pushes her to board a cargo flight home to Midway. The plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean and Robie is pulled onto an inflatable raft by the young copilot Max, who then falls unconscious and stops responding. Adrift on the open ocean, Robie makes the harrowing decision to lower Max into the water to save the leaking raft, only to have him disappear entirely before mysteriously returning. The current eventually carries the raft toward the uninhabited island of Lisianski, where the reef flips the raft and throws Robie ashore with nothing but her wits. After days of surviving alone, Robie finally confronts the truth that Max has been dead since the crash and that she alone has kept herself alive. A passing NOAA research vessel sends scientists ashore and Robie is rescued.

The main story of survival from crash to rescue.

Robie gets a nose ring at a piercing parlor in Honolulu, savoring the sense of independence from her parents.

Bobbi, the friend assigned to check in on Robie, calls to say a sudden injury prevents any visits.

Robie spends the night after the street attack wide awake, too frightened to turn off the bedside lamp.

Robie goes to the airport and asks pilot Larry for permission to board the cargo flight to Midway.

Max leaves the cockpit during the emergency, retrieves the inflatable raft, and makes Robie put on a flotation device.

Robie sinks beneath the ocean surface and nearly surrenders to death before her survival instinct forces her to fight.

Robie finds a yellow Coastal Commander survival kit bag strapped inside the raft and takes inventory of its contents.

While removing Max's wet shirt, Robie notices a silver thumbprint pendant at his neck and a long scar along his side.

Robie patches the pinprick hole in the raft after locating a patch kit inside Max's ditty bag.

Max tells Robie about wrestling and the time he broke his strict diet by binging on his mother's Christmas cookies.

Max tells Robie about his high school girlfriend Brandy, describing her with obvious deep affection.

Robie encounters a massive bait ball of fish, catches a small one by hand, and a shark bites off its back half.

Robie finds a monk seal dying on the beach from a catastrophic shark wound and mercy-kills it.

Robie rolls the dead seal into the ocean to spare the pup, and a fifteen-foot tiger shark immediately devours the body.

Robie reads the final pages of Max's journal on the voyage home and discovers she is wearing his thumbprint pendant.

Before the crash, Robie enjoys a carefree trip to Honolulu, getting a nose ring and relishing her independence, until her assigned chaperone cancels and leaves her truly alone. On the cargo plane she notices Max's sad eyes when they meet, foreshadowing the tragedy ahead, and when the plane goes down she nearly drowns before fighting her way back to the surface. Once on the raft, Robie carefully tends to Max's unconscious body, noticing a mysterious pendant and a long scar that hint at a hidden past. As the days pass and the hallucinated Max opens up, he shares stories about wrestling, his strict diet, and his great love for a girl named Brandy, building a portrait of a life defined by loss. The island brings new horrors, including a dying monk seal that Robie mercy-kills only to realize she has orphaned its pup, and a tiger shark that devours the body when she tries to give the seal a burial. The story closes as Robie reads the final pages of Max's journal aboard the rescue ship and discovers, to her astonishment, that she is wearing his pendant.

The supporting moments that shape Robie's ordeal.

Robie gets a henna tattoo at a Honolulu parlor, the second independent experiment of her unsupervised trip.

AJ calls from California to check in and Robie lies, concealing both the street attack and her plan to leave early.

Robie tries to call her parents before the flight but cannot reach them because Midway's phones are down.

The cargo plane goes eerily silent and Robie realizes with dread that an engine has been lost.

The plane nosedives and Max slaps Robie out of her frozen panic, forcing her to put on her life vest.

Robie fights upward toward the ocean surface but finds her path blocked by floating plane debris and cannot break through.

Robie finds Max's red therapy journal inside his ditty bag but forces herself not to read it, respecting his privacy.

Robie gives in and eats one deformed orange Skittle from Max's bag, rationalizing that he would not miss the imperfect one.

Robie breaks down calling for her mother with no reply, then resolves that she alone is responsible for saving herself.

Robie swims hard through open water to chase down the raft after a gust carries it fifty yards away.

Among dozens of useless beach lighters, Robie finds one with enough fluid to produce a small flame for her signal fire.

Robie wades into the ocean to retrieve a floating survival suit containing a dead body and a potential rescue beacon.

A shark attacks and tears apart the survival suit while Robie barely scrambles back to shore.

Robie reads Max's journal entry revealing that his girlfriend Brandy died in a car accident he blames himself for.

Robie speaks with her father by phone from the NOAA ship and chooses to believe his reassurance that everything will be alright.

The story's turning points begin in Honolulu, where Robie's small experiments with independence — a henna tattoo, a lie to her aunt, an unanswered phone call home — set up her catastrophic unpreparedness for what follows. The plane crash forces her through a rapid sequence of revelations: first the eerie silence of a lost engine, then a near-drowning blocked by debris, and finally the discovery that no one even knows she was on the flight. On the raft, Robie's moral code gradually erodes under pressure, from refusing to touch Max's journal to eating a single Skittle to losing control entirely, until she hits rock bottom calling for her mother before resolving to save herself. On the island, a series of desperate actions — swimming after a wind-blown raft, wading in for a survival suit, nearly being killed by a shark — test whether that resolve is real. Reading Max's journal at last reveals the tragedy he carried: his girlfriend Brandy died in a car accident he blames himself for, explaining his sadness and his scar. The pool ends when Robie, finally safe aboard the rescue ship, chooses to believe her father's voice telling her everything will be alright.