A young American, seeking escape from a haunting tragic event, takes a job with an international conservation organization in the foreign port of Retiro de Santos. He becomes romantically involved with a local artist, and platonically involved with a girl he learns is being forced into a hard life at a young age. His environmental group is sabotaged by a clandestine consortium attempting to turn a non-profit wildlife refuge into a for-profit resort. Then his coworker dies mysteriously, and his young friend is shanghaied.