Underwater treasure hunter Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) has been searching for the remains of a fabled Civil War ironclad battleship that left the United States at the end of the war in 1865 and sailed to west Africa. Nobody believes that the ironclad battleship ever existed, but Dirk finds proof, because local legend has a name for it, "The Ship of Death". Dirk and his lifelong buddy, Al Giordino (Steve Zahn), set out to find the ship. Doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz) with the World Health Organization catches a ride on Dirk's boat to find the source of a plague that is following a path along the Niger River. They soon become the target of an African warlord who wants to stop them from finding out what is really happening in his country.
