The movie is based on true events. The first USSR’s nuclear ballistic submarine suffers a malfunction in its nuclear reactor in 1961. K-19 proves the heroism of Russian sailors who served on the submarine. In the midst of the Cold War, Captain Alexi Vostrikov takes the control of the submarine instead of its first Captain Mikhail Polenin. His mission was to quickly prepare the submarine to submerge, no matter what it would take. But Vostrikov, Polenin and the K-19 crew could not imagine what was waiting for them.