1918. A French Navy ship steams into Fenua Poerava, alias Pearl Island, a lost paradise in the South Pacific.
The ships captain, Alfred de Morsac, a highly decorated WW1 veteran, is here to recruit and train a battalion of Oceanian Infantrymen.
Morsac is one of those intrepid heroes who “never say die,” the kind that could get by for a fortnight on one dead seagull. His courage and sense of duty sometimes border on recklessness and make him appear rather ridiculous. Landing on the island, he discovers a population of ancient warriors, the Hiva, living under the thumb of the vile, money-grabbing Commandant Lefebvre.
Morsac makes friends with Reia, the island’s child prince, who imagines him to be ‘Tefa’aora,’ he who, according to an old Tahitian legend, must free the people from their oppression.
Reia’s mother, Moeata, of French descent, has an entirely different take on things: for her, Morsac is nothing other than a ‘rotten European dog.’ Rapidly becoming an undesirable presence, Morsac is forced to flee, dragging Barnabé, a tender-hearted, but unwilling crook facing a twenty-year sentence, along with him. This frantic escape will take Morsac and Barnabé further than they could have ever imagined, overcome by a fate that surpasses their wildest dreams.
A lively adventure about men’s greed, the futility of power and the force of dreams.