In November of 1913, laconic sea captain Corto Maltese is left adrift in the middle of the Pacific. A boat captained by his traitorous bandit friend Rasputin who looks like an exact duplicate of the infamous historical figure, comes across him and rescues him. Corto finds that he`s not the only one Rasputin rescued from the sea. Two shipwrecked teenage cousins, Pandora and Cain Groovesnore of the fictional rich industrial Australian Groovesnore family, are on board as well. Rasputin rescued them when their boat sank and is now holding them hostage for ransom. He is about to reach the island of Escondida, a fictional island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean near the British Pitcairn Islands, that`s not on any known map or nautical chart, where his crime boss, a secretive hooded figure known as "the Monk", resides.