Tahiti plantation owner John Carsons, is murdered by a shotgun blast to the back of the head. He leaves his dwindling coffee cartel to his estranged daughter, Helen. On the sea journey to investigate her father's murder and to survey the newly-inherited plantation, Helen is shipwrecked.
She washes up on the Island of Forgotten Sins, where natives greet dawn and dusk with the sensual strumming of lutes. But sweet music does not cover the bitter truth that the island paradise is home to all types of scallywags, loose women and social outcasts.
Unable to leave the island, Helen is trapped in a criminal's resort where she does not know who to trust. After an attempt on her life, Helen finds that she is a hunted woman. After a second death threat, Helen realizes that she is worth more dead than alive to her family's powerful and rich enemies.