In 1820, following his graduation from
the Yale Divinity School, tall, gangling, bumbling Abner Hale
volunteers to carry the word of God to the heathen natives of
Hawaii. In need of a wife before he can offer himself to the
service, he timorously proposes to Jerusha Bromley, a young woman in
love with an adventurous sea captain, Rafer Hoxworth, from whom she
has not received a letter in over three years. To Abner's
astonishment, Jerusha agrees to marry him, and they soon set sail
for Hawaii.
After a stormy and arduous voyage,
during which their tiny two-masted vessel is battered by mountainous
waves off Cape Horn, Abner and Jerusha finally reach the islands,
where they receive a royal welcome from the Queen, the Alii Nui,
Malama. Although Jerusha easily makes friends with the natives
and tries to understand their customs, the sanctimonious Abner
refuses to make any concessions and rigidly imposes his will upon
the pleasure-and-peace-loving Hawaiians. He orders them to
destroy their pagan idols, cover their naked bodies, and abolish
their ancient practice of incestuous marriage. The Alii Nui
instructs her people to obey, although she herself refuses to deny
the deep love she feels for her brother, Kelolo.
One day a sailing ship arrives in the
harbor and Jerusha suddenly finds herself face to face with Hoxworth.
Although still attracted to him, she nevertheless rejects his offer
of love and chooses instead to remain with Abner.
Later, sailors from several ships,
including Hoxworth's, set fire to Abner's church as a protest
against his forbidding the native girls to mingle with seamen.
Led by Abner and Jerusha, the islanders put out the fire and drive
off the sailors, and peace is momentarily restored. Gradually,
however, more and more white men come to the islands,
commercializing and corrupting the simple way of life and leaving
behind disease and unhappiness.
The Alii Nui sends for Abner and,
realizing that her death is near, sends Kelolo into exile and
receives a Christian baptism; but after she has been buried in
sacred ground, Kelolo removes her body and disposes of it in the
traditional pagan manner. A severe measles epidemic then
sweeps the islands, taking the lives of hundreds of natives,
including Keoki, a native clergyman who had studied with Abner at
Yale. When Abner asks Keoki's sister-wife to pray with him,
she brands him as a man of hate who worships a cruel and unforgiving
God.
As time passes, Jerusha gives birth to
three sons and never ceases in her effort to persuade Abner that he
must ask for forgiveness from God for the sorrow he has brought to
the islands. In 1834, Hoxworth's ship once more returns to
Hawaii and on board is a prefabricated New England house he plans to
present to the Hales. When he learns Jerusha has since died,
he strikes Abner in a fit of rage and then, filled with regret, goes
to seek help for the man he has injured.
Seven more years pass, and the now old
and lame Abner is informed that he has been relieved of his
ministry. He sends his three sons to England for their
education, choosing himself to remain in Hawaii, still hopeful of
somehow bringing God's word to the islands.
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