Twenty year old Inge Lyndt marries Kane Boag, eighteen years her senior. After a honeymoon in Egypt they settle in his house in Miami, Florida. Weeks later a guest from Egypt arrives. With his appearance, Inge is swept up in an affair beyond her wildest imagination. Though her marriage is tumultuous, the births of her three daughters give her the strength to resist the ever-present temptation of two men hoping for her capitulation. They pursue her from Florida to Egypt, to West Africa until another woman and a war finally intercede.