Andrzej Wajda's English-language film of a novella by Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski aka Joseph Conrad about a young man in his first command as a sea captain. A series of crises prove incredibly difficult for his new authority for the sea is curiously becalmed and the crew is weakened by feverish malaria. When the first mate's fear convinces many that the ship is haunted and cursed by the malevolent spirit of the previous captain the young man must cope with their superstition as well as the conspicuous absence of much-needed medicine.