A young American, seeking escape from a tragic event, takes a job with an international conservation organization in the foreign port of Retiro de Santos. There, he becomes romantically involved with a local artist, and platonically involved with a young girl pursuing a better life. Soon his environmental group is sabotaged, his coworker dies mysteriously, and his young friend is shanghaied. Finding himself on the wrong side of unjust laws, he must decide whether to act or abdicate responsibility. As he teeters precariously on the edge of a decision, a raging storm barrels ashore to threaten everyone and everything in its path.
