The captain of a sailing ship has an affair with the wife of one of his passengers, and gets mixed up in a mutiny at sea and a revolution.
U.S. Navy Lieutenant George Blenton becomes drunk at an official reception, and his fiancee, Jane Ravenslee, the captain's daughter, breaks their engagement. After war is declared, George, entrusted with a secret code book to deliver to an English admiral, drinks and loses the book which German spies recover. During a private court-martial he is offered a pistol for suicide. After drinking again, he fires a shot, but still lives. Put ashore on the island of Tafofu "to rot," George, hating the U.S., moves in with Lehua, a half-white who tries to wean him from drink.
Dulce, last of the Alvarez family, lives with her mother in the Andes and is worshipped by Pancho, a half-caste. Gringo Burke, an American renegade, robs and kills her mother. Accusing Pancho of cowardice, Dulce vows to seek revenge.
