In September of 1659, a shipwreck leaves the captain’s daughter, Robin (Amanda Blake), stranded on a deserted island. Without hope of rescue, Robin soon settles into her new life on the island - building a tree house, praying for protection from hostile animals, and keeping track of her experiences in her diary. She explores the island, even going skinny dipping. One day, a group of savages arrives with two women captives. Robin watches from hiding as they execute one of the women gruesomely. She rescues the other captive and names her Friday (Rosiland Hayes). The two become great friends - and even some lesbian overtones are hinted at - as they live happily on the island, but their lives are upended when a handsome Royal Navy officer, Jonathan (George Nader), washes up on shore...

Feminists could certainly write a fascinating thesis on this low budget yet extremely interesting gender-reversed take on Dafoe's classic novel. This film really pushes the limits for the time in it's attitudes towards sex and gender relations, and in fact there is a scene involving Ms. Blake and Nader engaging in an oceanside coupling that has obviously been edited for content - and even more incredibly are the lesbian undertones in a scene where the female Friday gazes at and touches the sleeping Ms. Blake's body. All of this packed into an action-packed 73-minute running time, scored by the then-unknown Elmer Bernstein. Also newcomers at the time, Amanda Blake and George Nader could easily have simply sleepwalked through the proceedings, but instead act with such sincerity and conviction that it's no wonder both of them quickly went on to stardom: Ms. Blake on TV's legendary 20-year series "Gunsmoke", while Nader was quickly signed to a Universal-International contract (and starred in such 'A' features as "Unguarded Moment", "Away All Boats", "Four Girls in Town", "The Second Greatest Sex" and the unjustly overlooked superior second-feature "Man Afraid"