Nellie a spunky nurse from Arkansas falls in love with a mature French planter Emile. Nellie learns that the mother of his children was an island native and unable to turn her back on the prejudices with which she was raised refuses Emile's proposal of marriage. Meanwhile the strapping Lt. Joe Cable denies himself the fulfillment of a future with an innocent Tonkinese girl with whom he's fallen in love out of the same fears that haunt Nellie. When...