Based on the novel by Joseph Conrad, VICTORY stars Willem Dafoe as Axel Heyst, an American recluse with a dubious past living in the Dutch East Indies port of Surabaya circa 1913. Staying in a German hotel there, Heyst becomes entranced with a member of the hotel's all-female orchestra. When the owner of a hotel offers the girl, Alma, to him for a price, Heyst agrees. Soon, Alma has convinced Heyst to take her away from the villainous Germans, and the two run to a nearly deserted island where their passionate affair blooms into a romance. However, their idyll is shattered when the German hotel owner directs a treasure seeking bandit named Mr. Jones and his assistant, Martin Ricardo (Sewell) to their hideaway, insinuating that Heyst possesses a large fortune.