On the run from an FBI air and sea search involving the US Navy, unable to clear himself as the victim for another man's crime, Ian Townsend and his nine year old son David, secrete their yacht, Vixen, inside an uninhabited South Pacific atoll. Ian tells David they are avoiding a North Korean longliner from a previous dangerous encounter. (No going Back) Exploring ancient Polynesian monuments the pair are attacked by hordes of huge island rats and barely escape with their lives

Weeks later they sail to Samoa, but before reaching it the yacht is damaged by a great white shark, they barely escape shipwreck twice on the same island then meet Sam and the three of them are involved in the longest and most exciting adventure of their lives as they search for Amelia Earhart's lost aircraft on an island populated only by dangerous wild dogs.

Ian and David are briefly imprisoned in a strange, time warping underground room, the yacht, their only means to leave, is mysteriously towed to a dangerous anchorage as a warning to abandon the search. David is swept out to sea forcing Ian, who suffers from Hydrophobia, to swim out and rescue him.

Nine months later they solve the mystery of Earhart's plane and sail to Samoa where Ian and David's lives change dramatically when they get seriously involved with the infamous Winnie. (Don't Look Back)