His ship seized by the Chinese Communists, American Merchant Captain Tom Wilder languishes in prison but Chinese villagers help him escape to sail them to Hong-Kong.

In China, the American Merchant Navy Capt. Tom Wilder has been prisoner of the Chinese for two years. Out of the blue, he receives a message in a mattress with a Russian uniform, a revolver and the information that the guards had been bribed to let him escape. He meets a man waiting for him in a sampan and they head to the Chiku Shan village. He meets the village leader Mr. Tso and the American Cathy Grainger that explain him that they have recruited him to take 179 villagers to Hong Kong in a ferry boat. He is reluctant, since the old boat is adequate to inland waters only and does not have maps or charts. But soon he is convinced to accept the dangerous trip.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A merchant marine captain, rescued from the Chinese Communists by local villagers, is "shanghaied" into transporting the whole village to Hong Kong on an ancient paddle steamer.—Jim Beaver <[email protected]>