Michel was happy living with his family on a remote island off the coast of France. Even if he sometimes dreamt of sailing the ocean on a wonderful ship like the Captain's White Ship, his days were too full of fishing and chores to think about it much. But one day disaster strikes the island. Michel and the other children are forced to flee from Catherine de Medici's soldiers on the White Ship and look for a new land to call home. Finally Michel's dream has come true - but at what cost? And, what's more, something strange has begun to happen to the White Ship: the ship never weighs anchor, no one grows any older, and they never sight land. What's happening to them? And why is Michel haunted by bizarre dreams of an island in a distant southern land and a girl called Rachel?