It's 1518 and the Line of Demarcation divides the world between Portugal and Spain but no one knows on which side the fabulous Spice Isles lie, least of all the inhabitants. Only one man has the knowledge, experience, talent and determination to settle the question: Ferdinand Magellan, who is hated both in Spain and Portugal.

Antonio Pigafetta, former ambassador from the Holy See to the royal court of imperial Spain, casts his lot with a captain set up to fail. Pigafetta has no idea what he has let himself in for. Mutiny, murder, shipwreck and religious wars are just part of it but Pigafetta survives long enough to tell the story of the greatest sea voyage in history so that, as he tells the king of Spain, the fame of so noble a captain shall not perish in our time.