Long, long ago, a tiny privateer sailing under the flag of no nation, drops anchor and discharges its passengers on an uninhabited, desolate island, lapped by the warm waters of the South Atlantic. The place becomes a sanctuary for some hundred wanderers, seeking refuge from persecution - a place where they can practice without being molested - their belief in more than a single God. One hundred years go by, and the island's population has found a way to tear a day-to-day existence out of the barren, unwilling earth, until one particular summer in his crude palace, the island's young governor listens to his advisor...