Indigenous islanders in Indonesia's exotic Spice Islands of the 1600s rise up to defend themselves and their honored traditions when Dutch colonialists lay waste to their idyllic landscape and their tranquil lives. Elderly widower Gamati swears to save his family line from extinction when he and his family fall victim to the infamous plunder expeditions of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company. To escape the colonialists' cruelties, he leads his orphaned grandchildren and a small group of fellow villagers to the safety of another, more remote, island north of their current location. The birth of his great- grandson Kolosia during the voyage assures Gamati of his family's ability to sail the Moluccan seas freely for generations to come.