The action of the film takes place entirely on board between Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico, and Bremerhaven, Germany. Most of the scenes take place on the First Class deck, among the upper middle-class passengers there; but the ship is carrying 600 displaced workers, far more than the ship is certified to carry, in squalid conditions in steerage. They are being deported from Cuba back to Spain by the Cuban Machado dictatorship.