An old British reporter vies with a young U.S. doctor for the affections of a beautiful Vietnamese woman.

Based on the novel by Antonio Di Benedetto written in 1956, on Don Diego de Zama, a Spanish officer of the seventeenth century settled in Asunción, who awaits his transfer to Buenos Aires.

To escape the outback, a young Afghan cameleer falls in with a mysterious bushman on the run with stolen Crown gold.