Thirteen-year-old Albert Trask travels aboard the new ocean liner Titanic when his mother moves the family back to Washington, D.C. from their home in London. The writer, Barbara Williams, spends most of the book exploring Albert's feelings about his complicated family situation, but finds time to introduce readers to the complexities of classism that existed in that era. It's a poignant story that feels very much as if it could be true, although the characters (except for the ship's officers) are fictional. The ship's sinking takes a few brief chapters at the end.