Following the disappearance of her father, Lord Richard Croft, Lara Croft makes a living as a bike courier. While participating in a bet for money with those couriers, she ends up arrested after a collision with a police car. Richard’s business partner Ana Miller posts her bail, and urges Lara to accept her inheritance. Lara believes her father still to be alive, but Miller warns Lara that if she does not claim her inheritance, the family estate, Croft Manor, will be sold off. Lara reluctantly accepts and gains access to a secret chamber in her father’s tomb, where she finds a pre-recorded video message from Richard detailing his research into Himiko, the mythical Queen of Yamatai who was said to command the power over life and death. Richard warns Lara to destroy his research, but she ignores his warnings and investigates further.
Not yet having received her inheritance Lara is forced to pawn the jade pendant her father gave her. With the money Lara travels to Hong Kong where she hires Lu Ren, captain of the ship Endurance, to sail into the Devil’s Sea and the island of Yamatai. The ship capsizes in a violent storm and Lara is washed ashore where she is knocked unconscious. She awakens only to encounter Mathias Vogel, the leader of an expedition to locate Himiko’s tomb. The expedition has been funded by a shadowy organization called Trinity, which seeks to harness and weaponize Himiko’s power. Vogel takes Lara prisoner, claiming that he killed her father and revealing that he intends to use Richard’s research to continue his expedition. He adds Lara and Lu Ren to his slave force. The two of them try to escape and Lu Ren attacks the guards to help Lara escape.