Set in the shipbuilding community in Tyne and Wear, UK, The Last Ship tells the story of a young man who returns home after 17 years at sea. Tensions between past and future flare in both his family and his town. He finds that the local shipyard, around which the community has always revolved, is closing, and no one knows what will come next, only that a half-built ship towers over the terraces of working-class homes. With the engine fired and pistons in motion, picket lines are drawn as the foreman and his wife fight to hold their community together in the face of the gathering storm.