A gripping story of love, fear, and loneliness. It is one man’s search for an escape from all that is tiresome and mundane. It is his attempt to find that escape in love, the love he feels for a woman and the love he feels for an island.

Finding himself at a turning point in his life and in need of a new adventure, Elliot travels to Java a place that has, from an early age, inspired his imagination. After two weeks of site seeing he leaves the well trodden tourist path and goes in search of a more meaningful experience. He meets Marsiti, a girl from a Javanese village, who invites herself into his hotel room. He falls in love with her and the enchanted world she introduces him to. He spends the rest of his stay with her and leaves, when his three month visa is about to expire, vowing to return at the earliest opportunity.

A few weeks before he is due to fly back however, he meets a girl in London that he finds equally attractive. He goes ahead with his return trip to Marsiti, but his affections are torn. He suffers from restlessness and irritability and they row a great deal. This second visit comes to an end with a particularly damaging row which devastates them both.

Despite this bad experience he still finds himself drawn to her and the bewitching charms of her island. He returns for a third time and on this occasion it is Marsiti’s unfaithfulness that causes him pain. They do not row this time, but he suffers greatly from his jealousy and heartbreak.

Back in London, he finds that he has come into sufficient money to allow him to travel for a few years. He debates whether he should follow his heart which tells him to return to Marsiti, or follow his head which tells him to give her up and go a different way. His head wins and he sets off for Central and South America. But after travelling through Mexico for a few weeks he finds himself getting homesick for the charms of the Far East. The Mexican men are too macho for his liking and the women are too aloof. He remembers that he has not told Marsiti of his decision not to return to her and realises that she is still waiting for him. He aborts his South American trip and heads back to her and Java to make another go of it.

She is delighted to receive him and they begin to make long term plans. They give up their hotel life and move into her village. They get married and they build a house for themselves on a piece of land beside her brother’s house. But then, when their nest building activity is finally complete and he finds himself with little to do, his restlessness and bad temper come back with a vengeance. Their daily rows return and their fights become ugly. He begins to see that he has remained a rank outsider and is not capable of making a place for himself in her community. He becomes depressed and withdrawn. After one final row, she leaves him and he finds himself on his own in the village he has alienated himself from. Although she does come back to him a few days later, he can see that there is no love left between them and it is time for him to go.