A young orphan and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by the evil King Zarboff.  They know nothing of the mysterious trunk in the captain’s cabin, which contains a precious otherworldly cargo.  At sea, the boys are discovered by a precocious young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training who realizes that the trunk’s precious cargo is starstuff, a celestial substance so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands.  When the ship is taken over by pirates – led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain determined to claim the trunk and its treasure for his own – the journey quickly becomes a thrilling adventure.