In this film, Jürgen is Escher, the manager of a coal-mine on a little island somewhere in the Java-sea. When the film starts, it is the day of an important ceremony of the native tribe of the island, some of which work for Escher. Drums can already be heard, when Escher gets up. His servant Bom and one of the native girls warn him, not to trespass on the ceremonies in the next night, because they are forbidden for foreigners. He is also to warn his business-associate Quinn, who lives in his own bungalow.
When Escher arrives, Quinn is just getting up after a night with three girls and about to have a breakfast of whisky. You can see, Escher disapproves of his lifestyle and is not too pleased to hear, that Quinn has refused a job in Singapore to stay on the island and start a Quinn-dynasty. Escher warns him about the ceremony but Quinn laughs and accuses Escher of being too self-centered and arrogant to take part in real life. He declares that he himself is practically a memeber of the tribe and will certainly go.
Escher returns to his own house, where he keeps a portrait of his father, who seems to have quite a lot of influence on Escher's life. He remembers, what his father used to say: that love is the most treacherous and cruel emotion of all and that desire is bound to cause pain and disaster.
In the evening Escher listens to the drums on his verandah. Bom tries to tell him, that Quinn is in danger as he is on his way to the ceremony but Escher does not interfere. Quinn gets killed by the natives.
The next scene is set on the little steamer, that regularly calls on the little islands and Surabaya. There is a quarrel going on among the passengers, who have surprised a thief in one of the cabins. The thief is Gato, the "secretary" of a certain Mr. Jones, who declares that all was a misunderstanding. Captain Davies calms the passenger down by saying, that he will hand over Jones and Gato to the police, once they are in Surabaya. Which he doesn't as Jones later on drops a remark, that he may know some things about the captain. Knowing things about people seems to be his specialty, as it turns out.
The captain sees that a flag is up on Escher's island, which means, that he wants to be picked up by the steamer. While they wait for Escher to come on board, Jones mentions to a fellow passenger, that the once prosperous coal mine is more or less bankrupt, because more and more ships tend to have diesel engines. Jones tries to strike up an acquaintance with Escher, about whom he seems to have heard a lot, but gets rebuked.
Later on that day, Jones and Escher have a conversation, which points out their antagonism and explains the motivation behind further happenings in this film: Escher is a recluse, who thinks that the world is mostly mad and better kept away from, if you want to stay decent. Jones on the other hand, maintains, that you can only show your talents in conflict, he enjoys the madness and meanness of life and finds them entertaining. He declares, that he is bored at the moment and intends to something about it, maybe with Escher's help.
Escher visits a banker with the report about the mine. The banker has expected Quinn and asks about him. Escher tells him, that Quinn committed suicide. The banker fears, that the death will cause bad rumors, because the two lived alone on the island and this starts Escher on a monolog about human relationships and that he feels guilty about Quinn's death.
Escher stays in Schomberg's, another German, Pacific Hotel. Jones is also staying here, sitting in the bar or gambling in a backroom. As evening entertainment, there is a ladies' orchestra. The ladies are also expected to entertain the guests at the tables and probably later on in their rooms. Schomberg finds Escher as far away from the orchestra as possible and complains furiously, that Escher refuses to take part in the entertainment and prefers his book. He goes away and starts spreading rumors among the guests, that Escher has killed Quinn and is a lunatic.
When Escher walks through the bar later on, he notices one of the musicians after all and starts a conversation with her. She is called Julie and has gotten herself into a contract with the band through some mishap and is not very happy with her situation.
Jones has witnessed all the evening's going-ons and staring to develop a plan: he wants to force Escher to take part in life's messiness, take action at last and become as dirty as everybody else. He wants him to become involved with Julie, he bribes Schomberg's wife, who has good reasons to want Julie gone, to help her get away and get saved by Escher from Schomberg and life as a prostitute.
The plan works, Julie accompanies Escher back to his island. He gives her his room and moves into Quinn's cottage. After a few days, Julie confronts him with the rumors she has heard about Quinn's death. Escher explains, that he didn't kill Quinn but has felt responsible for him, ever since he helped Quinn out of some trouble and got him the job at the mine. He also confesses that he has never had the two most profound experiences in life: killing somebody or loving somebody.
Julie manages to seduce him and Escher falls in love with Julie. They have a quarrel about the ever-present father but make up afterwards very quickly. Everything looks like a happy ending until Jones turns up again. He, Gato and the owner of the boat they have chartered pretend to have gotten off course and to be without petrol or drinking water. They don't trust Jones and his companions but give him permission to stay for a few hours and refuel. Bom, the native servant, doesn't trust the newcomers either and leaves with the other natives for the forest. But it turns out soon, that they are going to help Escher.
Jones wants to provoke Escher into action but nothing happens, to start with. Bom takes away the boat, so that they are all marooned on the island now, a situation that Jones finds very entertaining. Gato abducts Bom's wife and starts blowing up the mine's buildings. When Bom turns to Escher for help, he finally reacts and runs out with his gun. Gato takes this opportunity, to get hold of Julie and rape her.
Escher gets into a fight with the boatman, whom he kills in self defense and frees Bom's wife. But he refuses to kill Jones, when he has the chance, as this is exactly the kind of thing, that Jones would want him to do. Jones then tells him, what Gato is up to and Escher runs to help Julie. When he arrives, he thinks she may be dead, but it turns out, that she has stabbed Gato, while he was raping her. Escher and Julie enter the boat, that Bom has returned, to leave the island. Jones finds this hilarious and laughs until he is speared by the natives.