The story of two brothers, Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand, who are maverick fishermen on the dangerous Bering Sea. They share the skippering duties on board their family-operated vessel, the Time Bandit, to hook Alaskan King crabs. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving waves 60 feet high, the perils of 1,000-lb steel crab traps thrown about by the wind, and the constant menace of open water.