The "Alma", a Croatian tugboat, docks at the Italian port of Ancona. Its engine has broken down and replacing it will cost too much. Business is bad and the crew hasn't been paid for months. The ship's managing company has gone bankrupt and left Greco, the ship's owner and captain, to fend for himself. Nondas, a shifty marine agent, has a plan to buy the boat from Greco at a distress sale price and sneak it out of port. But Greco baulks; the "Alma" is the only thing he has left from his father. Nondas, however, has other schemes up his sleeve...