Wambu is a young aborigine of New Guinea whose family is part of a small and slowly shrinking jungle tribe. The people's destiny is shaped by a witch doctor who rules the people's lives with superstition and terror.

Too small to carry on the tradition of headhunting, the tribe lives off the land, much to the disgust of the witch doctor who believes the tribe's spirit-strength is slowly being sapped.

One day Wambu and his father Koresio find a young fugitive girl, Sirja, who has escaped from a marauding band of cannibals. A young convert, Sirja introduces Wambu to Jesus and thereby earns the implacable hatred of the witch doctor.

The scheming, seething witch doctor shames the men into a headhunt against the much stronger village of Kitoe, a center of terrorism and cannibalism. When the hunt ends in disaster, the vengeful witch doctor blames Sirja. Things look bad for her, and the suddenly the village of Kitoe strikes back...