In 1808, while Europe burns and the Napoleonic Wars set the world aflame, the HMS Fortitude patrols the sea lanes of the South Pacific, carrying enemies of the British Crown. The Fortitude's captain has set his sights on a Spanish galleon weighted down with a fortune in gold and spices. When the ship is smashed by storms and driven far into unknown seas, the galleon and her treasure lost in the tempest, Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure and the rest of the Fortitude's crew find themselves aground on an island in uncharted waters. They soon discover that beneath the island's veneer of beauty lurks a dark secret: an ancient evil buried at the living heart of a volcano.