The story is about the unlikely attraction between Nellie Forbush, a naive Navy Nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas and Emile de Becque, a sophisticated French planter living on a pacific island.  This was combined with the secondary plot based on James Mitchener's book "Tales of the South Pacific" which concerned Lt Joe Cable's tender romance with Liat, a Poynesian girl. Both tales were combined by having Cable go behind enemy lines with de Becque.

At the time of its release, the musical was ground breaking in dealing with issues of inter-racial relationships. It seems a little strange today that Nellie should have such a problem dealing with the fact that de Becque has two children by a marriage to a Polynesian woman, but this should be viewed in the light of the racial segregation that was still practiced in the United States at the time.

Rodgers and Hammerstein were rewarded for their bravery when South Pacific became only the second musical to win the Pulitzer Prize.