In the Ecuadorian jungles of the Amazon, the Waodani people, one of the most violent societies on the planet, live totally cut off from civilization. Their homicide rate has brought them to the brink of extinction. One of their tribal leaders is Mincayani. Somewhere not far away along the Amazon, five young North American missionaries and their families have set out to find the Waodani. Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian eventually locate the Waodani village and find a sandbar on which to land their small plane. When one of the tribesmen lies that the foreigners on the sandbar have abducted and killed a tribeswoman, Mincayani and his fellow warriors find their site and spear the five Americans. The missing missionaries make headlines in the world’s media and a search ensues. When the Waodani see the helicopter and the size of the search party they think the foreigners will take their revenge, so they burn their huts and flee deeper into the jungle. Within months of the killings, a Waodani woman who had fled the tribe, helps gain entry into the tribe for the wife of one missionary and the sister of another, as well as Nate’s son, Steve. In time, they come to live with the Waodani and through a series of events the spearing that was destroying the tribe comes to an end. Steve wants to learn which warrior killed his father. He leaves the tribe as a boy with this question unanswered. Steve returns as an adult when his aunt, Rachel Saint, who had spent the rest of her life with the Waodani, dies. The Waodani want Steve to live with them the way Rachel did, but Steve’s unanswered questions keep him from agreeing. Mincayani takes Steve to the river where his father was killed and confesses to spearing him. At that moment, Steve and Mincayani are forced to confront the true meaning of the life and death of Steve’s father and the other men who were killed.