It's 1627 and twelve-year-old Amy Purdy along with her seven-year-old sister, Sarah, and their father set sail from London to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. After the death of Amy's mother, they hope to begin a new life there. When the ship is battered by a hurricane, Amy, Sarah, and a third girl, Priscilla, are lashed to the mast to keep them from being swept overboard. Amy and Sarah's father vanishes along with the wrecked ship but the girls wash up on the North Carolina outer banks. A Native American youth guides the girls through the swamps to the colony as they survive hardships and danger before finally arriving, dirty and scared, in Jamestown, Virginia. Then their real troubles begin! Will the girls be able to survive in the New World?