Set on a third world island in the Pacific Ocean, Doctors David and Sarah Arathoon oversee the medical care for an entire archipelago, their only help being a rather temperamental radio set, a good sense of humour, and various "how to do it" textbooks. The reader is provided with a frank and humorous first hand insight into medical triumphs and disasters encountered. A short stay on Santa Cruz is an exotic, un-put-down-able, warts and all account of this intrepid family's arrival on the Island of Lata in the Solomon islands and their integration into the ways of its people.