On a cramped cargo ship called Mayflower, side by side with a congregation of religious Separatists, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins travel to the New World. But the dark, gloomy voyage is only the beginning of their trials and tribulations. Priscilla's feelings for John grow while she cares for an ever-increasing number of sick and dying shipmates, and John faces the choice of a lifetime: to return to his comfortable cooperage in Southampton, or to stay, facing threats of disease, starvation, and attack by Indians, to establish an English colony on unforgiving shores.