Vladimir, a scrappy but aging Russian marine mammal biologist, unexpectedly hitch hikes aboard a boat filled with adventure photographers out of a desperate need to return to his science monitoring stations. His boat, 2 weeks prior, was lost to the explosion of the Raikoke volcano. He is on a mission to help fulfill his quest to understand and protect the Kuril Islands before his age fails him, and so together the team sets out in one of the most remote and accessible volcanic island chains in the world to help Vladimir.