Alex and Kate separated after their son’s death and have not seen each other for some time. They meet again for the first time on board a huge tanker of which Alex is captain. The same day as they reconvene, Alex rescues thirty young Africans when he discovers their boat drifting disabled at sea. His own vessel, ‘Sea Voyager’ is bound for the Cape of Good Hope and from there to the Gulf States. The shipping company can’t afford delays and so he decides to hand over the refugees to an aid agency in Lagos. But once they are in Nigeria Kate finds out that the middle-man is far from honest: he abducts the youths and, when one of them tries to bring about their escape, he is shot.
Shortly afterwards a fight breaks out on board after a football game between the crew and the Africans. When Alex tries to intervene he learns that his wife has secretly developed a close relationship with one of the Africans, a young man named Samir. When he later discovers that his dead son’s christening cross is missing, he accuses Samir of stealing it and demands that Kate leave the boat.
The next day, Alex hears that the shipping agent has died and that the assignment has been cancelled – the shipping company is now bankrupt and is no longer able to pay the crew’s wages. Meanwhile Samir and two other refugees plot to take over the ship. Their mutiny doesn’t go according to plan, but Alex realises that he has somehow manoeuvred himself into an impossible position – in more ways than one …