In 1842, an American whaling ship, captained by Captain Vangs, reaches an island in the South Pacific. It's decided to send a party on land to search for fresh drinking water and provisions. The captain refuses to give his sailors shore leave for two reasons. The first, he's worried about the existence of cannibals on the island. Second, he's a puritan and therefore concerned about his sailors' fraternizing with local native women. After many months at sea and frustrated with their tyrannical captain, the seamen are desperate for shore leave which the captain is contractually obligated to give. A fistfight between the captain and sailors Abner Bedford and Tom ensues. The captain is knocked out and the two seamen, fearing retribution, desert the ship. They rush into the jungle where two native tribes supposedly live. One tribe, the Happar, is presumably friendly toward visitors while the other tribe, the Typee, is cannibalistic. The two tribes are mortal enemies. Running away from Captain Vangs and his men, the two deserters end up in a native village. There, Fayaway, the grand-daughter of the tribal chief Mehevi, helps them. Eventually, the two deserters, Abner and Tom, are accepted by the tribe and partake in the tribe's daily life. They hope to someday leave the island by catching another passing ship. What the two sailors don't know is that their adoptive tribe is the feared cannibalistic Typee tribe.