At once a fantastic sea-adventure, a cautionary economic and environmental tale, and a mythic saga of a man and nature, this thrilling films tells the story of three centuries of American whaling, interweaving the riveting tale of the doomed whaleship Essex and the deeply moving story of a young whaleman named Herman Melville, whose own real life and imaginative voyage into the deep would give rise to one of the greatest works of literature ever created by an American.