In an island paradise during the Second World War, two Americans - a wide-eyed nurse and a promising young lieutenant - discover love and confront their own prejudices. On a South Pacific island during World War II, Ensign Nellie Forbush, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with French planter Emile de Becque. When Nellie learns that the mother of Emile's children was an island native, she refuses Emile's proposal of marriage, unable to overcome the prejudices with which she was raised. Meanwhile, the strapping Lt. Joe Cable falls in love with a Tonkinese girl named Liat, but he, too, denies himself a future due to the same fears that haunt Nellie. When Emile accompanies Joe on a dangerous mission that claims Joe's life, Nellie chooses to embrace a future with Emile and his children, thus confronting and conquering her prejudices.