Axel Heyst (Willem Dafoe) lives in the Dutch East Indies port of Surabaya, in a hotel owned by a racist German. An all-woman orchestra plays in the hotel each night, and the orchestra owner agrees to "sell" one of the girls, Alma (Irene Jacob), to the German. Heyst saves Alma from this terrible fate and they escape to a remote island, but the German sends the sinister Mr. Jones (Sam Neill) and his bandits to hunt them down.