Daubeney Carshott, a concert pianist, leaves London to dive for pearls on Thursday Island in the South Seas at the whim of Stella Raff, his fiancée. Once there, he discovers that the life he leads as a pearl diver is better in every way than his former existence as a social-lion pianist. He meets and falls in love with Lorna Quidley, after learning this Stella had send other suitors off in quest of a giant pearl for her.