When a two-year-old British heir is scooped from the icy Atlantic waters as the Titanic sinks with his mother aboard, he becomes someone else. Given to a childless couple who also survive the sinking, the boy is renamed Owen Manning and raised in New York.

A prodigy and eventual MIT grad, Owen's life intersects with Winney, a genius Brit from an aristocratic family; Lonnie, a beautiful Dutch med student; and Louis Stimson, a Washington politician serving as Secretary of War, whose connections will prove integral to Owen's life.

As World War II escalates, Owen is recruited for the Manhattan Project. In the process of his security clearance, he learns he is not who he thinks he is. This sends him on an odyssey for both the project and his past, all the while wondering -what price must we pay for the Peace We Are Given?