South Wind explores the pleasures of the hedonistic life. Set on the fictional island of Nepenthe (another depiction of Capri), South Wind tells the very loosely developed story of Thomas Heard, Bishop of Bambopo, during the season of the sirocco (south wind), which considerably affects the attitudes and behavior of the islanders. He encounters people holding various unorthodox views on moral and sexual questions, and Douglas develops the collision of opinions in "a series of Rabelaisian conversation pieces."