Having had his wallet lifted by a one night stand who may be either the girl of his dreams or just a common grifter, this world-weary traveler decides as a matter of honor that he must pursue her. Recruiting a scout from the roughneck Caucasian castoffs of the New Guinea port, he tracks her up country, to regions where headhunters still roam and forces of law and order play by entirely different rules.

Bohannon faces the natural threats of poisonous reptiles, floods, and the demands of the jungle itself. Then he winds up in the middle of a hunt for gold -- a hunt that proves that more than love or survival, greed is man's primal instinct whether he is white or black, civilized or savage.