Hebe listens in the darkness of the hall to a family conference. Her stern and hypocritical grandfather has convinced her three prissy sisters and their successful husbands that Hebe’s unexpected pregnancy must be terminated. So Hebe flees into the night.

          Twelve summers later, she is living happily with her son in a seaside town. She has adapted well, puting her son through an expensive boarding school by using her two chief talents in life – cooking and making love – and these she exercises with dignity, in privacy, and for profit. Hebe manages her lovers ("the Syndicate") with endearing charm until the unexpected happens: The seperate strands of her life become entangled and her future is set askew.