Edward Howard Griggs presents the story of the life of Pierre Loti, the novelist. Loti is the name of a flower in the south sea islands, and the name was adopted by Louis Marie-Julien Viaud as his pen name. In that fact alone, his whole spirit is revealed, his love of the exotic and primitive, his longing for somewhere else, for all that is untouched by rampant civilization. All of his books written in prose, are veiled records of his own experiences as a naval officer.