Six-year-old Scott Christian is thrilled when his family takes off in their forty-foot sailboat for a lengthy adventure to Hawaii, the South Pacific, and Australia. But in the middle of their third month at sea, everything changes forever for the boy.

After a massive storm destroys the sailboat and robs him of his family, Scott wakes up alone on a large, uncharted jungle island. In order to endure the elements, Scott must rely on the survival skills his marine instructor father taught him. As Scott begins to create a new life on the island, he finds and raises an orphaned gorilla, Buddy. While both boy and beast grow older, they create an unusual yet loving family that includes more gorillas and two very spoiled foxes. Nearly seventeen years later when a group lands on the island to study it and its ruins, Scott soon discovers that the greatest surprises in life sometimes bring the greatest rewards.

In this action adventure, a boy embarks on a coming-of-age journey on a deserted island where he creates a unique family and learns that happiness comes from the simplest things in life.