Clifford, a rather shy and inexperienced young man, volunteers himself for missionary service in Thailand. In so doing, he escapes a restricted life in the American Midwest. Although a loner, and finding himself in a culture very different from his own, he learns to accept, and is in turn, accepted by a wide strata of Thai society; ranging from Hill Tribe people to a police general. His involvement in providing information on drug movements to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Thai police, places him in dangerous situations, and even attempts on his life, which continues even after his retirement.