It is Christmas 1908 in Messina, one of the wealthiest merchant cities of the Mediterranean. Peter, the 13-year-old son of a wealthy English family, is notorious for his cruelty to children, animals and servants. One night he is ambushed and wakes up in a coffin underground in the city's Gothic cemetery, buried in revenge for his cruelty inflicted by a servant boy from his mother's house. When a powerful earthquake razes Messina to the ground, Peter is trapped and his whereabouts are forgotten. It is not until a century later that an English archaeologist and his daughter arrive in the city.