The story of the great and beautiful ships, built for speed and comfort, that regularly plied between Europe and America on the North Atlantic route. It is the story of a line in ship design that runs from Brunel's Great Eastern through the early Cunarders and the might German ships of the late nineteenth century, to the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth, the Normandie, the United States and, finally the QE2.

"At five years old, Kristal Brent Zook sat on the steps of a Venice Beach, California, motel trying to make sense of her White father's abandonment, which left her feeling unworthy of a man's love and of White protection. Raised by her working-class African American mother and grandmother, Zook was taught not to count on anyone, especially men. Men leave. Men disappoint. In adulthood she became a feminist, activist, and "race woman" journalist in...