In 1950, a young doctor called Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to a remote Micronesian island in search of a rumoured lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub 'The Dreamers', who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, Perina kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States...