Wambu, a young indigenous individual from New Guinea, belongs to a small and gradually diminishing jungle tribe. The tribe's fate is dictated by a witch doctor who exerts control through superstition and fear.

Due to their limited numbers, the tribe can no longer maintain the tradition of headhunting and instead sustains itself through subsistence living. This lifestyle is deeply resented by the witch doctor, who believes that the tribe's spiritual vitality is being eroded.

One day, Wambu and his father, Koresio, encounter a young fugitive girl named Sirja, who has fled from a marauding group of cannibals. As a recent convert to Christianity, Sirja introduces Wambu to the teachings of Jesus, inciting the witch doctor's implacable animosity.

In his scheming and seething rage, the witch doctor coerces the men into a headhunting expedition against the significantly stronger village of Kitoe, a hub of terrorism and cannibalism. When the raid ends in catastrophe, the vindictive witch doctor holds Sirja responsible. As the situation deteriorates for her, the village of Kitoe mounts a retaliatory strike...