[1][2][3] A new book being written by "adventurer" Pete Matthews, entitled Life and Death Among the Lupari Savages , is making thousands of dollars in advanced sales due to the publicity efforts of its publisher, Martin Osborne.

Unknown to the publisher and the treatise's prospective readers, however, is the fact that Peter is writing his book from the barstool of a Havana casino, where he is getting his information about the headhunters of Lupari Island from Orrin Tracy, a worldly bartender.

Wealthy anthropologist Sheila Winthrop learns of Peter's deception and tells Martin that she plans to expose the hoax if the book is published.

Unaware that his book has been canceled, Peter takes a $10,000 loan from his socialite girl friend, Marcia Stafford, with an offer of marriage as his collateral.

Now free of their previous romantic entanglements, Peter and Sheila are united, while Martin, Gerald and Caleb, the Winthrop's gardener, flee for their lives as the real headhunter sets his sites on their craniums.