Plot summary
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(August 2020) |
A group of teenagers verging on adulthood are to spend a year in a remote village in Indonesia, learning to live on the same terms as the people in that village. Their teacher, Mr. Hubert, is going along as well, but he decides to make a little extra money along the way: he cancels out on their scheduled transport to the village's nearest airport and hires a private pilot, Rupe Murphy, and his seaplane, both of which have seen better days. The two men agree that the pilot will accept an up-front cash payment of $2,000 and write out a receipt for $5,000, allowing the Hubert to pocket the difference when he is reimbursed.
The pilot takes the money and buys a substantial quantity of marijuana for later sale, so when the plane takes off with the students aboard and Mr. Hubert in the co-pilot's seat, it isn't flying the direction the teacher and the students require to get to their destination. The plane has mechanical troubles, and lands in the water near an island while the pilot checks it out. He informs the teacher that he'll have to return to an airport for repairs, and teacher says he's going along to make sure the pilot returns. That leaves the students on the island.
While they wait, Schenke, Derff, Karen, Scott, Larry, Betsy, and Tommy each go out to explore, but Scott dies in the rising tide after his foot becomes trapped between two rocks. As night approaches, they decide to leave the beach and find a better campsite. They leave a note for the pilot and teacher that they'll listen for the plane. Meanwhile, the plane is having even more mechanical problems, as the pilot gives a grim comment to the teacher.
Many of them quickly discover they need a leader to make decisions and serve as arbiter in disagreements. Dave is voted in as the new leader, and he oversees the implementation of a basic, one-person, one-vote democratic system with himself as the tie-breaker if necessary. Derff steadily becomes a capable fisherman, adding a new supply of food to the bananas and mangoes the teens have begun to harvest on the island. Schenke, formerly a lazy stoner, starts to take an interest in the group's welfare and even hunts down a pig to provide meat, though he is shaken by the killing and refuses go hunting again.
Some days later, Larry and Betsy observe the seaplane wrecked on the shore, and report it to the others and bring everyone back with them. They reach the plane and discover it empty and abandoned. There is no sign of the pilot, or their teacher. The students salvage everything they can from the plane for use in their campsite. Schenke finds the pilot's bag of drugs and throws it back into the sea, along with the marijuana he'd been carrying for the trip.
A storm hits the island unexpectedly, taking most of the group's belongings and the wreckage of the plane out to sea. The following night, Jackson points to a fire in the distance, revealing that they aren't alone on the island. Jackson and two others go to investigate the next day and find Rupe, who is grimly amused to realize he wound up back where he'd started. He explains that the seaplane's engines quit and Mr. Hubert was killed when they attempted to ditch the plane at sea. He drifted at sea for two days before coming ashore, originally thinking he was on a different island. He agrees to come back to the camp the students have established, but is generally disinterested in them, apart from making some advances towards Karen. Schenke, who knows the pilot was smuggling drugs on the plane, approaches the pilot by himself and asks if they were on the original flight plan; the pilot replies "Not even close."
Tommy, who has become protective of a trio of tropical monkeys he visits peacefully in the jungle, instantly distrusts the pilot and warns his sister about him. Rupe, in stark contrast to the teens, is lazy and equally disinterested in work or any of the sanitary or safety rules that the group has enacted. He asserts that as he is an adult, he can do whatever he wants, and threatens the others with his pistol before they tell him to leave. Rupe agrees to go, but robs the students of most of their improvised tools as he leaves. Rupe finds Karen on her own and kidnaps her, taking her to his original campsite on the other side of the island. When the students realize she is missing, Schenke deduces what has happened and declares his intent to go rescue her. Dave objects to going to war, but the others side with Schenke and ultimately the entire group moves out, armed with improvised weapons and mud for camouflage and face-paint.
Expecting that the students would eventually come after him, Rupe set a trap in the center of his former camp. When Schenke spots it, he sets it off, reasoning that Rupe will come to investigate the racket. The students clumsily spring an ambush and manage to disarm him, and Tommy knocks him out with a makeshift sling. By their twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth day on the island, nearly a full month after their arrival, the students have added their first formal institution to the island: a jail. Rupe is kept under a rotating guard in a small cave behind bamboo bars, with his own pistol held by whoever is on guard duty. The exiles wait patiently, confident that they will sooner or later be rescued.
