Dan Lynch, a friend of Captain Troy's, receives a brief note from his sister-in-law stating that Dan's brother has died. Lynch asks Troy to find the girl and learn the circumstances of her husband's death.

A beautiful young chinese woman, Monique Le Febure asks Adam Troy to charter his schooner ""Tiki"" to look for his grand-father. She tells the story of a group of old chinese men who for their retirement returned to their island with their personal belongings. They were in a seaplane, which apparently disappeared and sunk.

After rescuing a man and being led astray, Troy soon learns that the man has conned him into bringing his passengers to a military test site, to use their presence -- and their deaths, if necessary -- as a protest to halt nuclear bomb tests.