It is April 1900 on the imaginary island of Mingheria—a state of the Ottoman Empire—located between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension is high between the two. When a plague arrives, the island revolts.

To stop the epidemic, an accomplished quarantine expert races to the island, but not everyone is happy with the precautions or the quarantine he enforces. What follows is a shocking murder. The plague continues its rapid spread and stricter quarantine measures are declared, but the incompetence of the island’s governor, increased hostility between the two religions, and the people’s refusal to respect the bans doom the quarantine to failure. As the death count rises to insurmountable amounts, warships blockade the island to keep the disease from spreading. Now the people of Mingheria are on their own, and they must find a way to defeat the plague themselves.