Nick has been living as a merchant seaman, sailing everywhere with his pet pelican. While off the coast of South America, his boat is capsized by an oil tanker. In fury, he gets back ashore, seeking the oil company's board of directors, and says that he wants to be repaid. However, he is met by surprising hostility. He also meets a twelve-year-old boy who, it turns out, is the heir to the oil company, after his grandfather allegedly died. Nick agrees to protect the boy and, not very surprisingly, they soon find that Grandpa isn't at all dead, but merely hiding in the wilderness (allegedly the Colombian Amazon). Soon they discover that there is a conspiracy of greed, and after an action-packed climax, Nick acquires a new boat.