North of Australia, south of Japan, lies New Guinea. This huge island still hides pockets of unexplored territory. The people in these inaccessible parts appear to outsiders to have retained customs and beliefs of the Stone Age. A Japanese expedition find that tradition and innocence combine to produce a unique portrait of basic existence.

The happy story - almost a fairy story - of four children, two girls and two boys, of mixed English, Hindu, Pathan and Tibetan parentage, played out against the exotic backdrop of the snow-peaked Himalayas: children whose broken lives would never have been mended but for the loving kindness of one man, a Scotsman, Dr John Anderson Graham, who planted a seed which grew into a Lollipop Tree.