Anya has been backpacking in the Spice Islands, but her last postcard home arrived months ago. Now her anxious father, Francesco, has gone in search of her. Almost within sight of land the ferry he's travelling on sinks and Francesco and two other Europeans are washed ashore on the island from which Anya's last postcard was sent. They are immediately arrested, and then almost as swiftly released under surveillance when Francesco shows the local police captain a photograph of himself with the country's president. Now, although they may not leave the island, they can pick up the pieces of their plans - the two Europeans to make their TV documentary about a remote tribe in the hills, Francesco to find his daughter. What Francesco cannot know is that by showing the photograph he has unleashed a chain of events that leaves them all at the mercy of the conflicting ambitions of the Christian police chief and the Muslim army colonel.