The story was serialised in Spirou magazine before it was released as a hardcover album in 1991.

After the intervention of Spirou and Fantasio in New York, the former mafia boss Don Vito Cortizone (from Spirou à New York) is deposed and is now called "Unlucky Vito".

Cortizone's only hope of returning to power resides in the mysterious cargo of a seaplane which flies him over the Pacific.

After crashing the aircraft on the bottom of a lagoon in an atoll, he is helped by Spirou and Fantasio, on holiday nearby, who initially do not recognize him.

This cargo later proves to be a large quantity of bad luck charms, stolen from Chinese Triads.