Based on the actual exploits of navy lt. I.d. Richardson in the philippines, power and fellow seamen refuse to surrender to the japanese after the fall of bataan in 1942 and attempt to hack their way through the jungle to leyte, expecting to find a small boat that will take them to australia to continue the fight. Along the way they pick up the attractive wife of a friendly planter, presle, taking her with them. The group commandeers a small craft but a storm sinks it eight miles out at sea and the survivors must swim to shore where filipino partisans pick them up, hiding them in the jungle.