On 15 April 1912 1,500 passengers on The Titanic drowned after it collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and sank. The Midnight Watch is based on the true story of the SS Californian, a nearby steamship that could have picked up many of those freezing to death in the bitter ocean. But its crew failed to respond to the distress signals, and its captain refused to go to the stricken ship's aid. Told through the eyes of the Second Officer, wracked with guilt over the souls he could have saved, and a tormented investigative journalist on the trail of stories in the wake of the disaster, The Midnight Watch reimagines this unfathomable event to explore, inventively and disconcertingly, how easily individual personalities can influence events that lead to disaster.