November, 2011: Somali pirates hijack a sailboat in the Indian Ocean and take Americans Daniel Parker and his teenaged son, Quentin, as hostages. A tense standoff orchestrated by top US negotiator Paul Derrick ends in tragedy. The pirates are captured and extradited to stand trial in the United States, and a young man named Ismail is identified by his cohorts as the leader. Paul begins to suspect there is more to his story than zealotry and greed, but Ismail says little, fearing the truth will endanger the only person he has left in the world: his sister, Yasmin.