In 1942, Learoyd and four other American soldiers flee from the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, and their lifeboat washes up on the coast of Borneo. One of them has died on the voyage, and three survivors surrender to the Japanese, but Learoyd runs into the jungle. He watches as Japanese soldiers execute his friends. Learoyd tries to shoot an officer, Colonel Mitamura, but his hands shake too hard for him to aim and fire. He retreats into the bush. Two years later, a British officer, Special Operations Captain Nigel Fairborn, and his assistant, Sergeant Lawrence Tenga, parachute into Borneo and are shocked to be greeted by Gwai, a Dayak headhunter, who speaks English and claims to be a “Comanche.” Gwai takes the soldiers to his village and presents them to Learoyd, now king of the Dayaks. Fairborn tells Learoyd that his mission is to recruit tribes to fight a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese, but Learoyd refuses to get involved. He explains to Fairborn that after he fled into the rain forest, he was captured by Gwai, who took him to Lian, the tribal leader. Lian wanted to sell him to the Japanese, but Learoyd’s blues eyes and dragon tattoo so fascinated the tribe’s women that they insisted he be spared. Lian’s sister, Yoo, nursed him back to health and they fell in love. After a year of learning the tribe’s language and customs, the American challenged Lian to a fight to the death, and won. As the new Dayak king, Learoyd united forty-five warring tribes and married Yoo. He rebuffs Captain Fairborn because he fears that any contact with the outside world will taint the natives’ purity of spirit. When Fairborn radios his supervisors, they order him to exploit Learoyd until soldiers arrive to arrest him for desertion. Yoo overhears Fairborn’s call. The next day, a Japanese airplane bombs the village, killing a dozen people. Learoyd agrees to help Fairborn if he arranges a treaty with the Allies that guarantees the tribe’s autonomy. British airplanes drop weapons, along with four commandos, and the tribesmen become proficient in modern warfare. Weeks into training, a disagreement arises over a woman dying in childbirth. It is traditional to sacrifice the child for the mother, but when the father, Gwai, refuses, the mother’s tribe threatens to start a war. Learoyd decrees that, being from neither tribe, he will kill the child himself, thus preventing any tribal blood vengeance, but when the infant is brought to him, he declares it as his own. Impressed, Fairborn compliments Learoyd as being a true king. Days later, Fairborn leads a scouting party that stumbles into a group of Japanese soldiers. In the chaos, Fairborn, suffering malaria, gets lost and passes out on a road. Learoyd rescues him and, as Colonel Mitamura charges on horseback brandishing a sword, Learoyd carries Fairborn into the jungle and back to camp. When a small airplane arrives to pick up the captain, he promises Learoyd he will negotiate a treaty between the British and the Dayaks. Flown to the Dutch Indies, Fairborn is greeted by his fiancée, Vivienne, who asks about the fabled “White King.” Fairborn declares that Learoyd is in fact a “real king.” Although his superior, Colonel Ferguson, refuses to negotiate with savages, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in the Pacific, agrees to the treaty. When Fairborn returns to Borneo, and with Learoyd’s guidance, the confederation of tribes overcomes most of the Japanese forces, but Colonel Mitamura and his men escape. In the ensuing guerrilla war, Mitamura’s soldiers burn villages and resort to cannibalism to stay alive. When they attack Learoyd’s village, Yoo tries to fend them off with old men who were left to protect women and children, but despite the toll they take on the Japanese, they are killed and their bodies piled in Learoyd’s throne room. When he finds Yoo dead, Learoyd declares that blood must be answered with blood. He and the remaining tribesmen massacre a group of Japanese, but Learoyd is so stunned by the enormity of the slaughter, he vows never again to raise a hand against another man. Later, Fairborn hears a radio broadcast announcing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Moments later, Japanese survivors attack. Fairborn is wounded, and as he staggers into the jungle crying for Learoyd, he loses consciousness. Three weeks later, Fairborn awakens in an Army hospital with Vivienne by his side. She informs him the war is over. In the jungle, the bedraggled Colonel Mitamura surrenders his few remaining men to Learoyd, who treats them with respect. The British refuse to honor their treaty with the Dayaks, and Ferguson is ordered to bomb the tribesmen into submission. However, Fairborn arranges with Learoyd to exchange his freedom for a British promise to leave the tribesmen alone. Weeks later, when Fairborn discovers that the American prisoner is being taken to the Philippines for a court martial, he allows him to escape into another jungle.