A young Japanese man named Kamejiro Sakagawa is sent to Hawaii by his family to work on a plantation for several years. He has a sweetheart in his home village whom he plans to marry when he has saved enough money to return home. Kamejiro arrives in Honolulu with a few hundred other workers. Luckily, he is sent to a plantation on Kauai owned by Whip. The land is rich, and Kamejiro is a hard worker. Shortly after he arrives, he insists on building a public bath and charges his fellow workers to use it each day. This requires him to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to chop wood to heat the water, but he does so willingly. Kamejiro is passionately nationalistic, as are his other countrymen. None of them want to marry a non-Japanese girl. One man who does so is ostracized from the community. The group is also supportive of Japan’s military exploits, and Kamejiro frequently donates money to the country’s war efforts.

During this time, Whip crosses paths with a botanist who can get him a supply of Cayenne pineapples from Dutch Guiana. When the plants arrive, Kamejiro is put in charge of cultivating them.