When 19-year-old John Groberg is sent on a three-year mission to Tonga, he has no idea what he's getting into. Just getting to Tonga is fraught with danger and unbelievable obstacles. Once there, he finds himself in the midst of a culture as remote to him as the island is to his Idaho Falls home. Not understanding the language, and lonely for his fiancee Jean, John faces suspicion, distrust, typhoons, tidal waves, mosquitoes, and other perils of man and nature as he reaches out to the people of Tonga.