Summer, 1946. The Cousteau family, Jacques, his wife Simone and their two children Philippe and Jean-Michel, live in their beautiful house by the Mediterranean Sea. By day they dive, by night they watch the stars. It's paradise on earth. But Jacques is never content. He hungers for the adventure of the undersea world, and believes in the virtues of progress. With his invention, the aqualung, his recently acquired vessel, the Calypso, and a crew of free-spirited adventurers led by his wife, Simone, Jacques is ready to cross the world's oceans. Ten years later, back from the boarding school, Philippe finds his father greatly altered as an international celebrity. Jacques cannot see it yet, but Philippe already understands that progress and pollution have begun to lay waste to the submarine world. Yet father and son’s voyage to Antarctica may be their greatest adventure yet.