In the Cold War years of the 1970s an American patrol boat meets a Soviet ship off the east coast of the United States for talks about fishing rights in the Atlantic In the midst of this while Russian commanders are aboard the US Coast Guard vessel where the talks are being held a Lithuanian sailor jumps across the ten feet of icy water separating the boats Crashlanding on the deck of the American ship he desperately begs for asylum Though they try the Americans ultimately fail to provide protection and the Soviets are allowed to capture him and brutally return him to their vessel Thus begins a strangerthanfiction story of imprisonment discovery fame and freedom Through rare archival footage and a dramatic firstperson reenactment of that fateful day by Simas Kudirka the wouldbe defector himself this tale of one of the biggest Cold War muddles takes us on a journey of uncanny twists of fate and the emotional sacrifices of becoming a universal symbol of freedom
