It's 1865 and the war is over, but the hardship and suffering have not ended for Emma, whose mother is dead and father is missing. With her brother and sister, Emma boards the Sultana, a paddle wheel steamboat, hoping to find refuge in St. Louis with relatives. After Yankee soldiers returning north from Confederate prisons are crowded aboard the boat, disaster shatters Emma's hopes. Fighting for her life in the flooded Mississippi, Emma discovers courage she did not know she possessed.