Set in Cold-War-era 1988, Big Miracle is the real story behind the remarkable, bizarre and often times uproarious event that mesmerized the world for weeks. On October 7, an Inuit hunter found three California Gray Whales imprisoned in the Arctic ice. In the past, as was nature's way, trapped whales always died. Not this time. Rose compellingly describes how oil company executives, Greenpeace activists, Eskimos, businessmen, and military officers heroically worked together to save the whales. The book also features some of the more than 150 international journalists who brought the story to the world's attention. The rescue was followed by millions of people around the world and brought President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, to join forces.