The Galapagos Islands sit at the center of this film, built around a single recurring event: the arrival of El Niño, the Pacific current that warms the surrounding waters and cuts off the cold, nutrient-rich currents the islands' wildlife depends on. Marine iguanas, seabirds, and sea lions all face die-offs when the warm water disrupts their food supply, and the film follows that mortality as it moves through the ecosystem. Rather than treating this as a disaster story, the film frames El Niño as part of a cycle the islands have lived through repeatedly, tying the die-off to the same volcanic forces that built the archipelago from bare rock into a habitat capable of supporting the finches, tortoises, and reptiles Darwin later studied there. The footage stays close to the animals during the warm-water event and its aftermath, using the recovery that follows as evidence that the Galapagos' fragility and its resilience come from the same source: an ecosystem shaped by recurring extremes rather than stability.