The game begins in April 1942, when Frank Carlson is caught in an air raid during the London Blitz and sent back to 1912. There, he is a British secret agent aboard the RMS Titanic with a second chance to complete his mission and change history.

His main task is to recover a priceless copy of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which was stolen earlier in the year. He suspects it is in the possession of Zeitel, a German colonel traveling with his protégé, Willi Von Haderlitz, while others involved include Sasha Barbicon and the Serbian intermediary Vlad Demonic.

The player can follow the storyline by solving puzzles or simply explore the ship’s rooms. Other subplots involve Daisy Cashmore, Andrew Conkling, the Lambeths, Leyland Trask, Reverend Edgar Troutt, Max Seidelmann, and fellow agent Penny Pringle.

The number of objects recovered before escaping affects the ending and how history is altered. If all four objects are retrieved, World War I, the Russian Revolution, and World War II never occur.