A blind artist is on his way to Java to see a doctor about an operation to restore his sight when the ship sinks and he washes up on a tropical island. A native girl finds him and begins to nurse him back to health. However, the girl's boyfriend wants the artist out of the picture so he can have her to himself, and the only other white man on the island also wants the artist out or the picture so he can cheat the girl out of her prized possession, a large black pearl.