A nobleman's errant son is dispatched to the South seas to be blooded. A tale of stumbling through intrigue, hunger, pangs of love-lust, deceit, loneliness, kidnap and hunger on his path to discovering common sense. Coast-watching on Guadalcanal when the Japanese invade, he discovers the horrors of what war does to man on the one hand-and what unlikely friendships can be forged on the other. A front stalls view of the legendary naval battles on Guadalcanal, 1942.