An 11-year-old boy who believes that he is the best detective in town runs the agency Total Failures with his best friend, an imaginary 1,500-pound polar bear.

In February of 1952, one of the worst storms to ever hit the East Coast struck New England, damaging an oil tanker off the coast of Cape Cod and literally ripping it in half. On a small lifeboat faced with frigid temperatures and 70-foot high waves, four members of the Coast Guard set out to rescue more than 30 stranded sailors trapped aboard the rapidly-sinking vessel.

A young boy, Pete, is found in a forest where he's been living for six year after an accident took his parents' lives. A ranger, Grace, takes him in and asks him how he survived all by himself. He says he had a friend named Elliott and draws a picture of a dragon, saying it's Elliott. Grace takes the picture to her father who claims that years ago he encountered a dragon in the forest. Grace takes Pete back to the forest and he shows her his home and Elliott. A man sees Elliott, and when he tells about his experience and isn't believed, he sets out to capture the dragon to prove it.