During World War II, a German U-boat crew embarks on a perilous Atlantic patrol, confronting enemy attacks, isolation, and the crushing strain of life underwater.
An adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, the film is set during World War II and follows the German submarine U-96 and her crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.