A crew of sponge-divers get tangled up with a gang of ruthless smugglers who plan to take advantage of their sponge fishing skills in order to bring to the surface priceless antiquities and then to smuggle them out of the country.

Somewhere on a small Greek island inhabited by honest, hard-working sponge-divers but also ruthless smugglers, a silver-haired lighthouse keeper struggles to provide for his children, beautiful and innocent, Maria, and his grown-up son, Andreas. Maria is in love with the impecunious painter, Pavlos, who has caught the attention of the isle's mysterious lady, Dora Fiorelli, who is bent on winning his heart at all costs. But, poverty forces Maria into a life of misery, while Andreas, who is now a wealthy shipowner, returns to his hometown, only to get entangled in a dangerous ring of antiquities smugglers. Can there be a better future in the Port of Tears?—Nick Riganas