Ten boys and a dog are shipwrecked on an island in the Pacific. After a storm they discover another boat has been shipwrecked on the island. They make friends with two of the survivors, a nurse and ship's carpenter, but discover there are three other survivors who are ruthless mutineers.

Frankie McCoy (Ken Shorter) is a born loser from the Sydney suburb of Newtown, and a gambler and a bit of an SP bookie. When he's conscripted into the army to fight in the Vietnam war, he deserts, but in pursuit of money, he falls into debt with SP bookies at the local pub. This film, shot at Kapooka camp, contains one of the only depictions in Australian cinema of soldiers training for Vietnam.