Steve MacAllister, an Australian official for The New Guinea Administration, gets orders to investigate an oil discovery by Ned 'Shark-eye' Kelly in the interior. He selects his native policeman, Sergeant Major Towalaka, to accompany him on his "walk into hell" and then finds that a French lady doctor, Louise Dumarcet, is to go with them part of the journey. They find the malaria-stricken Jeff Clayton in a deserted village and he joins the trek. They are captured by jungle natives but are released after Dr. Dumarcet cures the fever-stricken children of the chief.