On the eve of the First World War, a group of eccentric passengers — and a rhinoceros — embark on a luxury transatlantic voyage in order to scatter the ashes of a famous opera singer in the ocean. The tranquillity of this funereal cruise will dissipate as the voyage progresses. Social and political tensions come to the surface when the captain of the ship is forced to save a group of shipwrecked Serbian refugees who have escaped the first rumblings of the War. A metaphor for the horrors of a conflict that heralded the fall of western civilisation — starring Pina Bausch.