Michael Caine starts the series with a tragedy involving hundreds of men stationed on the Piper Alpha oil rig in the cold and forbidding waters of the North Sea. It was an accident that went beyond anyone's worst nightmares. In 1988, the doomed oil rig exploded, sparking gas and oil fires that tore through the giant structure. Michael follows the stories of the brave men, who in the face of a catastrophic disaster, worked fearlessly to rescue and save the lives of those on the burning rig and in the freezing North Sea.