Matthew Stewart tells the story of Monturiol from his childhood to his years living the dangerous life of a revolutionary. We see him at the bloody barricades and fleeing -- one step ahead of the Barcelona police -- to the remote coastline of northern Catalonia. On that shore, watching teams of divers risk their lives gathering coral from the water's depths for use in the making of jewels, candelabras, and crimson pigment, he finds the true purpose of his life. He saves a man presumed dead from drowning and conceives of a craft that will protect the divers who harvest coral -- a safe, hermetically sealed underwater vessel that will make the ocean's bounty available to the common man.