Monomoy is a small American coastal town. As its inhabitants go about their daily business and nightly intrigues, disasteris gathering a surely as the waves that break on her sandy beaches. Monomoy is confronted with annihilation as a tornado heads straight for the town. For ten days her fate hangs in the balance. Fear, hope, strength and weakness are ruthlessly laid bare. Most of the townspeople gather in the Longships Hotel, hoping for refuge. Power, fuel, water and communications are running out. The tide is coming in so fast it threatens to wash the town into the bay. And the hotel is directly in the path of the raging ocean. Unless a miracle occurs, the hotel and all its occupants will be swept away by waves twenty feet high coming through at a dreadful speed.