It is about a savage group of pirates, made up of outcasts, thieves, and murderers, who are hidden from the outside world by an uncharted Caribbean island, and who have raided boats to sustain themselves since the 17th century.

Blair Maynard is a British-born American journalist in New York City who was once in the Navy and who decides to investigate the mystery of why so many boats disappear in the Bermuda Triangle of the Caribbean.

He takes his estranged son Justin with him to Florida with the promise of a vacation to Disney World and, while fishing, both are attacked by an unkempt man and forcibly brought to an uncharted island.

The pirates kill whoever comes to the island; however, Blair and his son are both kept alive due to a false assumption that they are descended from Robert Maynard and a need to offset the negative effects of inbreeding.

Blair is used to impregnate a woman named Beth, the widow of the man he killed, and act as a scribe for the largely illiterate group, while Justin is brainwashed to become a surrogate heir to Nau, the pirate leader.

[2] The film was mostly shot on the islands of Antigua and Abaco,[5] and the United States Coast Guard cutter Dauntless stands in for the fictitious USCGC New Hope in the movie.

[10] Donald Guarisco from Allmovie gave the film a more positive review, calling Benchley's script "dark and witty, with gruesome violence, black humor".