In the 1750s, Spanish Jesuit priest Father Gabriel enters the northeastern Argentina and eastern Paraguayan jungle to build a mission station and convert a Guaraní community to Christianity. The Guaraní are not initially receptive to Christianity or outsiders in general and, when Gabriel sends a priest to make contact with them, they tie the priest to a wooden cross and send him to his death over the Iguazu Falls. Father Gabriel himself then travels to the falls, climbs to the top and, in an attempt to make a connection with them through music, plays his oboe. One of the Guaraní warriors, seeing that the stranger and his music are European, breaks the oboe, throws it down into the water, and stalks off. Father Gabriel does not react, however, and the remaining Guaraní (who were captivated by the music) allow him to live and take him to their village.