While searching the South Pacific for a missing aviator, Bob Mitchell (Ray Milland) and Jimmy Wallace (Lynne Overman) are caught in a typhoon and crack up on an island, escaping unharmed with the aid of Tura (Dorothy Lamour), a beautiful jungle girl who is the only inhabitant of the island and is believed a goddess by the natives of the adjoining islands. The three are about to leave the island on a make-shift raft when a gang of savage tribesman land, headed by Kuasa (J. Carroll Naish), a half-mad potentate who informs them that all whites are his mortal enemies because an Englishwoman once spurned his love and he got his revenge by stealing her daughter, who is Tura. He had set her up as a goddess but she must now pay for befriending the hated white men by being sacrificed to the crocodiles in an underground temple. An earthquake rocks the island and destroys Kuasa and his band. Bob, Jimmy and Tura find a party of rescuers waiting on the beach, headed by aviation company president J. C. Martin (Jonathan Hale) and his daughter Eleanor (Virginia Vale as Dorothy Howe), Bob's fiancee. It soon becomes evident that Bob must choose between Tura and Elanor.
While searching for lost aviator Roy Atkins for their air transport company, Bob Mitchell and Jimmy Wallace are caught in a typhoon and crash land on a Malayan island. Their plane and radio are destroyed and Bob suffers a minor head injury. They encounter Tura, a beautiful young native, who is escorted by her pet chimpanzee, "Gaga," and lion cub "Meewa." Bob and Jimmy live in a cave and are tended to by Tura. While Bob teaches her rudimentary English, he and Jimmy learn to enjoy their jungle life. Back home, newspaper headlines abound with stories of the missing aviators. J. C. Martin, Bob and Jimmy's boss, and his daughter Eleanor, who is engaged to Bob, are frustrated by their inability to help in the search. Meanwhile, Bob and Tura fall in love. Hostile natives from another island, led by evil Kuasa, arrive at Tura's island to conduct a ceremony honoring the "crocodile" god. They assemble in caves inside a volcano, where a hypnotized Tura participates in the ritual while Kuasa awes the natives with conventional magic tricks. Roy Atkins, who has been a captive of the tribe, is sacrificed and thrown to hungry crocodiles. Hidden from view, Bob and Jimmy witness the spectacle and comfort the distressed Tura when it is over. Kuasa returns to claim Tura and discovers her guests. He explains that Tura is the kidnapped daughter of an English woman who jilted him, and that he has reared her in isolation from the natives so she will appear as a goddess. Kuasa has vowed to seek vengeance on all white men, and tries to kill Bob and Jimmy with the help of his followers. Gaga, the chimpanzee, meanwhile, lights a signal fire after having watched Jimmy struggle unsuccessfully to light one. Inside the volcano, Kuasa plans to kill the three in another ceremony, but an earthquake strikes and the natives panic. Many are killed by avalanches or eaten by crocodiles, and Kuasa himself is killed by a falling statue. Tura, Bob and Jimmy escape through an opening in the cave and emerge from the jungle just as the Martins, who rented a yacht, alight on the beach. Bob and Eleanor are reunited, to the jealous dismay of Tura, who sadly returns to her cave. Eleanor releases the lovestruck Bob from his engagement, however, and he returns to Tura.
