A hardworking Maltese fisherman, Jesmark is faced with an agonizing choice. He can repair his leaky luzzu -- a traditional, multi-coloured wooden fishing boat -- in the hopes of eking out a meagre living at sea for his wife and new-born son, just as his father and grandfather did before him. Or he can decommission it in exchange for an EU pay-out and cast his lot with a sinister black-market operation that is decimating the Mediterranean fish population and the livelihoods of the local families who depend on it.