Sophia Loren and Alan Ladd star in a sun-drenched romantic adventure starring as a diver and an archaeologist battling over the fate of a rare Greek statue. Phaedra (Sophia Loren in her first Hollywood role) is a poor sponge diver on the lovely Greek isle of Hydra. While deep diving, she discovers an ancient brass and gold statue of a boy riding a dolphin. Anthropologist Jim Calder (Alan Ladd), working in Greece to restore national treasures, wants the artifact but he can't pay for it, and asks Phaedra to donate it to his museum. In the meantime, Phaedra's lazy boyfriend has seized on the opportunity to sell the treasure to an unscrupulous art collector (Clifton Webb), who not only takes a shine to Phaedra, but intends to smuggle the sculpture out of the country.