Peter Willems, a clerk in Macassar, granted a 'second chance' at a remote river trading post, falls ever more hopelessly into traps set by himself and others. The pawn of Babalatchi—the one-eyed schemer of power politics—and of the rich Abdulla (who uses Willems to increase his own wealth), his fate is sealed by his lover, Aissa, and by Almayer, an embittered fellow countryman.