While investigating the disappearance of research ships in the Aegean, the Seaview is damaged by a bomb. Captain Crane goes ashore, and pretends to be a diver for hire. The Captain meets an ex-diver, now a mute due to a tragic accident, who claims to have seen a ""city beneath the sea"". Crane gets hired by the ""bad guy"", but his cover is soon blown. He is taken prisoner and nearly loses his life.

After Seaview's sister ship, Polidor, is lost on an experimental deep dive, Seaview continues with the tests. Unknown to the already stressed crew, one of the visiting psychologists aboard is an enemy agent who has released a fear-causing gas into the air system. As Seaview plunges into the depths a dangerous panic starts to spread.

A sea monster kills three villagers in a Norwegian fjord; however, one man survives. Seaview arrives to investigate. Nelson and Crane are met with hostility from the locals and find the survivor has died. Nelson does his best to make sure the ""sea monster"" doesn't destroy Seaview.