Great Lakes

In the spring of 1970, nineteen-year-old Ted McHugh signs onto a Great Lakes ore freighter, hoping distance and hard work will steady a life already drifting off course. The ship becomes its own floating world—grueling labor, strict routines, and the nightly poker games where his cabinmate Mike, a few years older and far wiser, wins with uncanny consistency.
But the sailing season turns dark when Mike vanishes during his midnight watch on Lake Superior. Suicide or murder—no one knows. Before his disappearance, Mike revealed where he hid his poker winnings and made Ted promise to deliver the money to his mother if anything happened.
Now Ted faces a wrenching choice: honor his promise or turn the money over to the captain, knowing Mike's warning—"Don't trust anyone"—may be the only truth he has left.
As tensions aboard the ship escalate, Ted finds himself becoming a target of unruly oilers who blame Ted for their losses. The only person he can rely on becomes the ship's transgender galley steward; the person who's intelligence, kindness, and quiet courage reshaped Ted's understanding of the people around him.
As Lacy risks everything to help him, and the conflict spreads offshore to his family home, can Ted survive through the final violent storm and desperate fight?
"Great Lakes" is a coming-of-age story forged in steel, weather, loyalty, and the thin line between fear and courage.