This alarming information from the officer of the deck makes no sense. USS Maryland, a Virginia-class submarine has been submerged for two months while executing a standard reconnaissance mission. So how could there be a man overboard?
Miles from land, Captain Hanlon of the USS Maryland surfaces within the coordinates of the Bermuda triangle in order to pick up this presumably dead man, lost at sea.
Only the man isn't dead.
Maryland is at the precise coordinates where the submarine USS Scorpion sank in 1968, with the loss of all her crew. At the time there were accusations of conspiracy and Soviet involvement. More recent evidence supported a "cataclysmic event" and possible torpedo malfunction. Naval investigation was inconclusive.
Captain Hanlon has no idea that he is going to discover the answer to the mystery of Scorpion's demise as well as the hidden truth about the Bermuda triangle.