The story is set in Japan during World War II. Dr. Sadao Hoki, a skilled and renowned surgeon and scientist, is not sent to combat because he is needed to treat a prominent General. Thus, he and his wife Hana, also Japanese but whom he met in America when both were studying abroad, are at home one evening, looking out at the ocean and mist creeping through the pines, when they spot a dark shape in the surf that turns out to be a white man. He is a severely wounded soldier, his gunshot wound worsened by the rocks.
At first, they wonder if they should let him die, especially since they realize he is an American and an escaped prisoner of war; then, they consider whether or not to turn the man over to authorities.
Sadao’s training as a doctor kicks in and neither can bring themselves to let the man die, so the two agree to take him back to their home. Sadao will treat his injuries as an act of humanitarian compassion consistent with his professional ethics. He carries out an operation on the unconscious young man, and even though the man is in poor shape, it is clear he will live.
Sadao and Hana must inform their servants of this decision, who make no secret of their belief that the man should have been left to die. Yumi, their young children’s nurse, tells her mistress that the servants are worried.
After a week of treating the white man and helping him recover from his life-threatening injuries, the servants quit when their ultimatum that the man be turned over to the authorities is met by the doctor’s steadfast resolve and Hana’s pride of authority.
Meanwhile, the soldier—who actually seems more like a boy of seventeen now that he is clean and growing healthier—thanks the doctor for saving his life. The doctor warns him not to be premature with this assessment, insisting that he wants to know nothing about him—not even his name. Sadao makes it clear that the young man is troublesome for his home but that he has a duty to treat him. The young man understands; one day, however, he blurts out to Hana that his name is Tom, and another day, he marvels to Sadao that if all “Japs” were like him, maybe they wouldn't have gone to war.
When a messenger arrives for Sadao, Hana is terrified that the servants have spilled the beans and they are about to be punished. Instead, the message directs Sadao to a patient consultation with the General. He is very ill and will likely die without the surgical skill of the doctor. Sadao chooses to confess to the General the situation with the injured prisoner. The General, in a display of self-interest over duty, agrees to keep the secret. After all, if he turns in the doctor, then Sadao will likely be executed, and the General needs the doctor alive in order to prolong his own life. They reach an agreement: the General will send his own private assassins to kill Tom quietly and cleanly one night as he sleeps.
After a few days, the prisoner not only has not been assassinated but has also recovered much of his strength, which intensifies the doctor’s fear. Since it seems the General has changed the plans they agreed upon, Sadao takes it upon himself to arrange the man’s nighttime escape. He tells Tom there is an abandoned island off the coast where he can wait to be picked up by a Korean fishing boat. The doctor will provide him with supplies and he can flash a signal using a flashlight if he needs more. Tom is reluctant but knows that he has no other choice, so he departs as Sadao instructed.
Not long after that, Sadao is called in for emergency surgery to save the General’s life; when the General is strong enough to receive the news, Sadao tells him that his prisoner somehow “escaped” in the night. The General confesses that he was worried about his own life to the degree that he had completely forgotten the assassination agreement. He then laments that it was simply a case of carelessness and most certainly not a dereliction of duty or lack of patriotism. The two men strike a deal to keep secrets secret, with the General promising Sadao that he will be rewarded.
One night, the sun sets without a signal, informing the doctor that the escape was successful. This, Sadao thinks, is his real reward.
Other white faces from his past in America come to mind, and he shudders at how cruel, prejudiced, and simple many of them were. Such is the depth of his antipathy of the “repulsive” whites of the world that he tells himself he is glad the country is at war with them. Then he muses to himself: “Strange. I wonder why I could not kill him?”
