Red Morning plot
In British New Guinea, veteran sailor and cargo ship owner, Captain Perava, prepares for his next voyage while his daughter Kara discusses marriage plans with insurance agent John Hastings. Though she loves John dearly, Kara postpones their marriage to accompany her father as second mate on his upcoming voyage. Shortly after their departure, Chief Mate Hawker opens the cargo ship's portholes, overruns Captain Perava, kills the cook, then escapes with the rest of the crew in a lifeboat. After discovering that the cargo they are carrying consists of worthless sand, Kara and her father row to the shore of an island inhabited by a superstitious tribe of headhunters.