Art historian Claire suddenly decides to leave England to take a job on an obscure tropical island in the South-China sea, where she finds her new exotic surroundings both fascinating and challenging. Her personal life becomes confused too - ex-pat banker Howard loves her but she falls for elusive Drew, an Australian aid adviser. Two friends she meets have different problems. Young American mother Deborah, unhappily married to a lecherous husband, has a poignant affair with a teenage boy. Lucy, an unsophisticated bride, is trying to adjust to her intimidating role at the British Embassy. The girls' lives become intertwined and Claire, employed to catalogue a collection of Buddhist art, accidentally finds herself in danger when she becomes involved with the darker side of island life. This is a novel about love and adjustment, independence and interdependence, about ordinary women who have - or achieve - a certain courage in a different world.