Helen Tremaine returns to the coral island where she has been the nurse for the previous five years, with a strong feeling that it is now her only home, but it is not the paradise that she remembers.

When Giddy Gaibui drowns at sea while attempting to ferry contraband alcohol onto the island, chairman Russ Gaibui goes on the warpath and woos Helen to his side.

When a long-estranged child returns to the island to claim the land his father promised and build a church on it, he causes divisions among the island's community.