Helen Tremaine returns to the coral island where she has been the nurse for the previous five years, with a strong feeling that it is now her only home, but it is not the paradise that she remembers.

When a long-estranged child returns to the island to claim the land his father promised and build a church on it, he causes divisions among the island's community.

Tensions re-ignited after a long-awaited tombstone opening deteriorate during the all-night feasting and dancing following the ceremony.