In 1998, the crew of 5 Russian fishing boats, over 100 sailors, were stranded without pay in the port of Lyttelton. The men occupied their ships and refused to leave until they received their wages. Scuppered charts the personal story of three sailors who refused the settlement and took the case to court in New Zealand. The film operates on the boundary of non-fiction and fiction by mixing interviews, archival footage, home video, poetry and theory.