On November 23, 1942, German U-Boats torpedoed the British ship Benlomond, and it sank in the Atlantic in two minutes. The sole survivor was a second steward named Poon Lim, who, with no knowledge of the sea, managed to stay alive for 133 days on a small wooden raft.

Sole Survivor, based on three years of interviews with Poon, reconstructs his remarkable ordeal. We learn of a ship's crew that saw him but refused to pick him up; his ingenious ways of trapping water and catching fish (later used in U.S. Navy training films); his reaching land, only to find it an impenetrable jungle. When he was finally rescued at the mouth of the Amazon River, Poon was hailed as the "World's Champion Survivor." He still holds the Guinness world record for survival at sea. His story is an amazing tale of a young man's fortitude in the face of overwhelming odds.