In June 1816, the Medusa, flagship of a French expedition set sail. She ran aground off the West African coast. In the evacuation 146 men and one woman were herded aboard a makeshift raft. Starving, they slaughtered mutineers and ate their dead companions. This work presents a study of the Medusa tragedy.

Among the handful of survivors from the raft were two men whose written account of the tragedy catalogued the trail of government incompetence, indifference, and cover-up. Their book became a best-seller which rocked Europe and inspired the promising artist, Theodore Gericault. Reeling from an illicit affair with his attractive young aunt, he threw himself into an exhaustive study of the Medusa tragedy, turning it into a vast canvas. Set in the politically fragile world of Restoration France, the murk of Georgian London and along the dangerous West African coast where the French were covertly regenerating the outlawed slave trade, Medusa witnesses' error and outrage turned into a best-seller, and that best-seller transformed into one of the masterpieces of Western art.