Christopher Columbus (Gerard Depardieu) sought neither fame nor fortune when he requested support for his venture to go to Asia sailing west. Queen Isabella (Sigourney Weaver) did. She believed in Columbus as an explorer, but needed to fill her treasury with riches from other countries and expand her kingdom. What Columbus sought was to start a new world to escape the kingdom-building greediness he saw in the old world. So with the best of intentions, he inspired others to make the long journey with him until he landed on the shores of the Western Hemisphere. What he did not expect there was that just by entering into the world of other indigenous people--even with the best of intentions--he would forever change their world with disasterous consequences both for he and his crew and the people of the new world.