When he is arrested for embezzlement and exiled from Singapore, Willems (Trevor Howard) looks to Captain Lingard (Ralph Richardson), a merchant who took him in as a child, to help him. The Captain takes Willems to a secret trading point, where Willems becomes enamoured by Aissa (Kerima), the daughter of a once powerful pirate chief. Willems desire for Aissa leads him down a path from which there is no return.