Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), an Afro-American recruit with the U.S. Navy, discovers his vocation in life when he is transferred to an elite training school for deep-sea divers. Yet despite the recent abolition of segregation, Carl still suffers from the lingering racism it has left in its wake; finding himself rejected by many of his fellow trainees, victimized by the school's bigoted commanding officer Mr Pappy (Hal Holbrook), and pushed to breaking point by chief training officer Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro). Nevertheless, Carl refuses to quit and soon he and Sunday establish a mutual respect which will see them through their many subsequent trials.