The sequel picks up precisely where the first book left off, with Arthur Lestrange in the ship Raratonga discovering his son Dick and niece Emmeline with their own child, lying in their fishing boat, which has drifted out to sea.

Only when he enters the house and finds the flower decorations and neatly arranged supplies – unmistakably the work of Emmeline – does he break down in tears.

Dick and Emmeline were aware of the Kanaka's existence but never encountered them – for many reasons, they stay away from Palm Tree and believe it is haunted.

She makes friends with Dick M and teaches him her language, naming him Taori, but Kearney is suspicious of her, particularly when he finds she evades touch.

She lights a fire as a prayer to Nanawa, the ocean god, to return her to Karolin, but Kearney thinks she is trying to signal her people to attack the island.

Katafa is angry when she learns her people were that close, but she finds she cannot hate Dick M; she's falling in love with him, to the point that she begins to desire to touch other living things.

The fisherman Dick M killed was the grandson of the island's king, Uta Matu, and the fishermen assume that where they saw one "foreigner", there must be dozens, maybe hundreds.

In the middle of the night, Dick M pursues Katafa through the forest once more, carrying a spear in case of trouble, when he runs straight into the warriors.

When a schooner of copra harvesters arrives, crewed by Melanesian slaves under the direction of two white men, Dick M wants to speak to them but is attacked.

Katafa tells Dick M that it is the sacred war club, and can be carried only by men of the royal family, so he must be the new king of Karolin, and indeed, when they get there, Uta Matu has died.

The people – women, very young men, and little children – have turned against old priestess Le Juan, who has terrorized them for so many years and whose advice had sent all the warriors to die on Palm Tree.