Much scarred orphan, Truman Kramer, having joined the Peace Corps, is assigned to a small Malaysian community, serving an assemblage of all-but-forgotten handicapped children. Truman, never having kissed a girl, becomes involved with an unloved, married woman; a shopkeeper's wife craving anything of her own. As his service wanes, mired in earnestness and deceit, his lover's husband discovers his wife's affair. Torn with remorse, young Truman acts, plumbing the depths of love, and our need to attach ourselves to other human beings.