"Lusitania: She was a ship of dreams, carrying millionaires and aristocrats, actresses and impresarios, writers and suffragettes - a microcosm of the last years of the waning Edwardian Era and the coming influences of the Twentieth Century. When she leftNew York on her final voyage, she sailed from the New World to the Old; yet an encounter with the machinery of the New World, in the form of a primitive German U-Boat, sent her - and her gilded passengers...

Accused of cowardice and of dictating the Titanic's excessive speed, Ismay was the first victim of a press hate campaign. He never recovered from the damage to his reputation and never spoke of his beloved ship, the Titanic, again. Wilson explores Ismay's desperate need to tell his story, and to find a way of living with the consciousness of lost honor.