In 1936, a young atheistic doctor, Anton Drager, arrives in Java to learn from Dr. Brits Jansen, the world's leading authority on leprosy, all he can about the dread disease and then return home to profit from his knowledge. Although Drager wins the old man's grudging respect, he antagonizes him by his lack of religious faith and his indifferent attitude toward humanity. Furthermore, Drager's wife, Els, finds herself neglected because of her husband's immersion in his work. One day Drager goes into the jungle to search for Frolick, an alcoholic river master who has been driven mad by the voodoo of a medicine man, Burubi. After being forced to kill Frolick in self-defense, Drager vows to fight the vicious Burubi. But he is tricked by Burubi and becomes lost in the jungle. Harassed by witchcraft horrors, he finds himself following the same crazed pattern that demented Frolick, who also lived without spiritual guidance. When Drager is at last found by a rescue party, he has lapsed into a coma. But Jansen's fight to save his life and Els's ceaseless devotion finally restore him to normalcy. And Drager now knows that one cannot live without thought for man, wife, or God.