전대미문 국새 강탈 사건으로 조정은 혼란에 빠지고, 이를 찾기 위해 조선의 난다긴다 하는 무리들이 바다로 모여든다. 바다를 호령하다 졸지에 국새 도둑으로 몰린 위기의 해적, 고래는커녕 바다도 처음이지만 의기양양 고래사냥에 나선 산적, 건국을 코앞에 두고 발등에 불이 떨어진 개국세력까지! 국새를 차지하는 자, 천하를 얻을 것이다!

Laurent van Horn is the leader of a band of Dutch refugees on a ship seeking freedom in the Carolinas, when the ship is wrecked on the coast of Cartagene, governed by Don Juan Alvardo, a Spanish ruler. Alvarado has Laurent thrown in prison, but the latter escapes, and five-years later is a pirate leader. He poses as the navigator on a ship in which Contessa Francesca, daughter of a Mexican noble, is traveling on her way to marry Alvarado, whom she has never seen. Laurent's pirates capture the ship and Francesca, in order to save another ship, gives her hand-in-marriage to Laurent, who sails her to the pirate hideout. This irks his jealous pirate comrades Anne Bonney and Captain Benjamin Black. They overpower Laurent and send Francesca to Alvarado, and then Mario du Billar, a trusted right-hand man, makes a deal to deliver Laurent to Alvarado.