Based on the life of Emma Eliza Coe, known as the "Queen of the South Seas", whose strength and cunning staved off the colonial struggle involving the United States, Great Britain, and Germany while she built her own empire. Emma’s father, the first consul in Samoa, taught his daughter at an early age the bitter truth about the fickleness of men.

A woman artist's affair with a younger man jeopardises her marriage, her career and her child's future. He personifies the nihilistic philosophy of Albert Marcuse and tries to manipulate her. Her dependence on him forces her to reassess all the values of her art and life. We observe these events at three levels; a woman writer uses them as the basis of a play and in the process reveals parallels in her own experience.

A business executive leaves his wife and family when he discovers that he only has a short time left to live.