It's 1923 with the Jazz Age in full swing. Evangeline Murray, an abandoned and desperate young widow from Ohio, is recruited by the Women's Freedom Movement to be a "daredevil" and plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Evangeline sees the opportunity as a way out of her crushing debt. Joshua McClaren, an enigmatic, battle scarred veteran of World War I and the best boatman on the Canadian shore of the Niagara, reluctantly agrees to launch the vivacious and headstrong Evangeline despite having seen hundreds of bodies surface in the Whirlpool below the Falls from similar attempts. Although lonely, he resists his attraction to Evangeline and her desperate determination. He realizes he's the only one who can give her any chance of survival. Nevertheless the Niagara River will claim two more lives. Will hers be one?