This book is about some of the most dramatic search-and-rescue operations in Canada. Whether the action is on the heaving deck of a sinking ship off the Newfoundland coast, within the incredibly confining walls of a power plant in Ontario, or high on a cliff face on a British Columbia mountain, each of these stories is exciting, memorable, and true. They are accounts of courage, loyalty, perseverance, and sacrifice that knows no bounds.

We read of the heartbreaking last days of an Anglican missionary fighting for his life in a lonely Arctic outpost. Another chapter relays a dramatic rooftop rescue in New Brunswick. We meet people who are saved from floods, fires, plane crashes, earth movements, and violent storms. No less are the stories of the sometimes unexpected and tragic losses of the rescuers.

Because Canada is so vast, Search and Rescue capability has to span the nation, and extend from sea to sea to sea. No other country has done what we have done. Heartbreak and Heroism is popular history at its most exciting.