Matthew McConaughey og Kate Hudson går efter guldet (og diamanterne og smaragderne og rubinerne) - de er et nyskilt par, der småskændes og generer hinanden hele vejen gennem en undersøisk skattejagt fuld af eventyr og morskab. McConaughey spiller Finn, som er forelsket i sin ekskone (Hudson) og i lommen på gangsteren Bigg Bunny. Efter otte års søgen får Finn et tip om, hvor han kan finde "dronningens medgift", en enorm skat, som på mystisk vis forsvandt i det caribiske øhav i 1715. Nu skal han bare finde guldet, vinde pigens gunst og fordufte, inden Bigg Bunny får fat ham.

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.