In the spring of 1939, the German luxury liner, Franz Joseph, was making its last transatlantic crossing. Aboard were a thousand Jews who had miraculously managed to escape the monstrous fate that awaited six million others. Cuba had promised them a temporary haven until they were allowed into the United States. But suddenly, Cuba reneged-and they were a thousand souls in purgatory, condemned to return to Hitler's hell if they could not find a nation to take them in. And while their future was being debated in secret conferences, they waited and stared at the silent sea.