In 1916, laconic adventurer Corto Maltese is taking a siesta in Paramaribo, the capital of Dutch colony of Suriname. He’s also seeing some old friends there. Golden Mouth, a legendary local friendly mystical 200-year-old voodoo medium who looks like a beautiful young woman asks him to help Tristan, a young confused teenage gentleman who’s been led to her by voodoo spirits who’s been haunting him ever since he inherited the controlling interest in his father’s company. The other big shareholder, a sleazy lawyer, wants the company for himself, even if he has to kill Tristan to get it, and the spirits can’t let that happen for reasons of their own. Professor Jeremiah Steiner, once brilliant scholar and now a local drunk has-been who Corto saves from local thugs, befriends Corto and offers his help in deciphering a mysterious map left to Tristan by his secretive father that mentions the Aztec gods, a gate and the fictional lost continent of Mu. Golden Mouth also hires Corto to take a shipment of weapons to a “cangaceiro” group, armed peasants and bandits in Northern Brazil who fought against the big landowners as well as the brutal military units that were sent there by the government to keep the rebellion under control. Later, in 1917, Corto goes on a treasure hunt after acquiring a playing card, one of four that hold clues to the location of a long forgotten Spanish treasure. He meets with his traitorous friends, a woman called Ambiguite de Poincy and bandit Rasputin who looks exactly like the infamous historical figure, who possess two more cards. They make a shaky alliance and go after the treasure, even though they are missing the final clue card, which turns out to have dire consequences.