In 1819, Prince Keoki Kanakoa appeals to Yale Divinity School to bring Christianity to the Hawaiian Islands. Among the volunteers is Abner Hale, newly ordained, who must be married before embarking on the mission. Reverend Thorn introduces Abner to his young niece, Jerusha Bromley Hale, who is in love with Rafer Hoxworth, a whaler currently away at sea. Believing Hoxworth has forgotten her, Jerusha agrees to marry Abner after a brief courtship.
The couple, along with Mason and other missionaries, sails to Lahaina on the island of Maui. They are shocked by what they perceive as the islanders’ sins, including incest within the royal family. Kelolo is both husband and biological brother of Malama Kanakoa, the island’s ruler, a tradition meant to preserve the royal bloodline. Keoki, who longs to serve as a minister, faces pressure to marry his sister Noelani, who is next in line to rule, in order to secure dynastic continuity.
On Lahaina, Jerusha throws herself into parish life, volunteering to help the native people and to curb infanticide after rescuing a baby with a facial birthmark. She gives birth to a son, Micah, in the midst of hardship. During a stopover in one of his whaling voyages, Rafer Hoxworth returns, learns of Jerusha’s marriage to Abner, and is consumed by jealousy, even threatening Abner. Despite the tension, Abner baptizes Iliki, a young Hawaiian girl who had been given to the Hales as a servant, marking a small victory for conversion efforts.
Malama agrees to learn about Christianity but resists full conversion, knowing it would force her to send Kelolo away. At the Hales’ insistence, Malama imposes a curfew on sailors and forbids fraternizing with native women, sparking a riot among the sailors. Hoxworth presses Jerusha to leave with him, but she remains steadfast. When sailors retaliate by partially burning the church, the Hawaiians rally to defend the Hales, driving the sailors back to their ships. In a later act of vengeance, Hoxworth entices Iliki to leave the island with him, and Abner, trying to retrieve her, is cast overboard and attacked by a shark, leaving him permanently lame.
Years pass. Abner reveals to Keoki that he will likely never be ordained because he is not white, proposing that Keoki take a deacon’s role to oversee the natives’ activities. Keoki refuses, and his faith is strained as he renounces Christianity. On Malama’s deathbed, she agrees to be baptized, renouncing Kelolo as her husband. As the natives had foretold, a powerful gale strikes the town and destroys the church at Malama’s death.
Noelani becomes the Aliʻi Nui and marries Keoki. Abner disrupts the wedding, revealing that Malama’s baptism was a move for the people’s benefit. Kelolo departs for Bora Bora with Malama’s heart, and Abner prays for divine retribution to punish the islanders. When Noelani and Keoki’s child is born severely deformed, Abner argues against saving the infant, despite Jerusha’s pleas. Keoki drowns the child, and a measles outbreak soon devastates the native population, killing hundreds, including Keoki, who dies while denouncing God.
Jerusha’s years of toil and childbearing take a heavy toll on her health, and she dies prematurely. Devastated, Abner becomes more compassionate toward the Hawaiians, opposing settlers and plantation owners who seek more land. He is reassigned to Connecticut, though he stays in Hawaii and sends his children to New England. Returning to his hut, Abner is greeted by a young Hawaiian man who wishes to be his assistant. The man is the disfigured infant Jerusha had saved years before, and Abner’s happiness swells at the thought of a renewed partnership in the work he once believed was lost to him.
