Teenager Tamahine grew up in the South Pacific the only legitimate child - she with many illegitimate siblings, which is typical of the only culture she knows as marriage is considered forever - of her British father Julian, with her Polynesian mother passing away when she was a child. After Julian passes away, Tamahine, as was her father's wishes, travels to Britain to learn of that side of her family and their proper British customs. She is to be the ward of Julian's widowed cousin, Charles Poole, the headmaster of Hallow, a proper upper class boys' school, he who has two offspring living with him: his twenty-something unhappy and soon to be divorced daughter, Diana, who is secretly, or not so secretly, dating the school's indecisive art teacher, Tim Clove; and his eighteen year old son, Richard Poole, a student at the school. Tamahine is blissfully unaware that her frank talk, especially about what she calls "loving", and her various states of undress are causing an uproar at the school. That "loving" is typical for a girl her age back home, and thus she being the wanted object of affection of many of the opposite sex at Hallow is what she wants, Richard and Tim among those who admit their attraction to her. However, a romance with blood relations as close as Richard she considered taboo. Regardless of what is considered her scandalous behavior, Tamahine may open up some of the joyless repression of many of those at Hallow.