The film is set in the Kona Coffee Belt of Hawaii during the 1920s. Japanese immigrant laborers and the white upperclass live in a rigidly classist society. Jo (played as a child by Cole Takiue), an orphan of mixed-race lineage (''hāfu''), finds himself ostracized by both groups until Doc (Matt Dillon), a white doctor from the mainland (''haole''), is hired as a physician for workers on the plantation owned by Mr. Danielson (Nick Boraine). Doc has Jo run medicine and translate for him on the island.