In 1945, an infant left inadvertently to die in the jungles of the Belgian Congo is discovered by a young Bashilele tribesman on a mission to claim the head of an enemy. Recognized as human--despite her pale white skin and strange blue eyes--the baby is brought into the tribe and raised as its own. Young missionary Amanda Brown hears the incredible stories of a white girl living among the Bashilele headhunters. In the company of the local police chief, Captain Pierre Jardin, and with the witch doctor's wife, the quick-witted Cripple, along as translator, Amanda heads into the wild hoping to bring the lost girl back to "civilization." But the girl no longer belongs in their world--and the secrets surrounding her birth and disappearance are placing them all in far graver peril than anyone ever imagined.