The Blair brothers follow the footsteps of naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace on a Bugis sailboat in search of the bird of paradise to the Aru Islands near New Guinea.

The brothers sail to Komodo and camp amongst the giant carnivorous lizards of Dragon Island. In Bali, long before the tsunami of tourism, they build their first bamboo house. In Sumba Island they witness equestrian warriors performing a veiled form of human sacrifice, and in New Guinea they dwell amongst the Asmat tribe of cannibals and headhunters.

In the shadow of Java's active volcanoes the Blairs descend from the erupting crater of Child of Krakatoa into a medieval world of courts, mystical shadow plays, forgers of magical swords, healers with supernatural powers and entire communities ruled by the Goddess of the South Seas.

The brothers travel for 800 miles through uncharted rainforest, by canoe and on foot to seek out the last of the nomadic Punan Dyaks, the 'dream-wandering' tribe believed to no longer exist.

After his brother's death rites in Bali, Lawrence takes a boatload of friends, including Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, on an adventure from the cannibal swamps of New Guinea back westwards in a retrospective of the changing archipelago.