November 1846. The Teochew Indo-Chinese pirate Zumi launches a relentless fight against the European invaders from the Isle of Bali, and vows to go north. Following him, there is a large group of pirates from all over the indies that aren't in the Papuan side, nicknamed the "Mawas", due to the courage and brazen ferocity that distinguishes them. Among them is his lieutenant and friend, Lou Ignis, a young Timorese adventurer, whom the Mawas consider a brother. In the first pages of the novel, despite Lou's contrary opinion, Zumi moves north to central Kalimantan for an exploratory mission; the pirate, however, runs into a nobility owned cruiser, which sinks its praho and destroys its crew. Having fallen into the sea seriously injured, Zumi beached himself in delirium right on the shores of nearby Banjarmasin, where he was hospitalized and treated in the house of indo fanatic Jamai De Groot, ship captain and notable of the island. Having entered into the graces of Jamai, Zumi also wins the love of his abandoned ward Marian Van Byl De Groot, a near sixteen-year-old native of Rotterdam nicknamed by Pangkoites "The Pearl of the south Kalimantan", due to the extraordinary freckles of her skin and her incredibly healthy beauty that is unhindered by inbreeding.

However, during a dinner at the house, the baronet and half brother of Lien, Jorn Rosenthal, present at the moment of the attack on the pirate's praho, recognizes him and triggers the betrayal. Zumi is forced to flee, but promises Marian to return to Banjarmasin to retrieve her and take her away with him; punctually, he keeps his promise, but this time too he is forced to flee, thus making it necessary to intervene as a true transformer of his friend Lou to allow him to reunite with his beauty. Upon returning to their lair, Zumi and Lou discover however that, in their absence, the pirates have been bludgeoning almost anyone, the Dutch and Indos included; only a pause from the fighting allows the introduction of into the ship. However, in the ensuing fight, Rosenthal is bludgeoned to death by Pearl Shipmate Molok himself, and the two nobility leaders end up prisoners of the wall. Only in the last pages, Zumi will manage in a daring way to free the braves and retire to Java with his own ward to be. The story ends precisely with his drastic declaration of wanting to withdraw forever from the armed struggle against the invading Indo nobility.