Life is a voyage and for Thalia McGrath, the voyage is literal. In 1965, she sails on the ocean liner Oriana from Australia to America engaged to marry journalist Douglas Barton, the man she met when he was working temporarily in Australia. The long ocean crossing of Polynesia and the glamor and fun of a sea voyage—a rite of passage for young Australians—take a serious turn when Thalia, in a misguided attempt to be more alluring to her husband-to-be by acquiring some sexual experience, impetuously begins a shipboard affair with one of the ship’s officers. Meanwhile fellow passenger Nigel Somerville has fallen in love with her and asks her to run away with him. Refusing Nigel, and ending the affair with the officer upon arrival at her destination, Thalia marries Douglas, but does not reveal the shipboard affair. She settles down to be a wife and mother, only to find that marriage guarantees neither fidelity nor honesty. She begins to suspect that Douglas is serially unfaithful to their marriage vows, and although her own conscience is hardly impeccable, she is appalled by his amorality and by the larcenous conduct he exhibits toward his dead brother. When he takes a new position in Belgium and imperiously orders her to make the arrangements to sell their house and move their household to Europe without his assistance and support, she is angry and resentful. Pregnant and with a toddler, she accomplishes this task, but begins to consider whether she wants to remain in the marriage. Douglas goes ahead to Europe, promising to find a new home for them, and Thalia and their son Daniel set off to Belgium. Passing through London en route, Thalia re-encounters Nigel Somerville and the group of amusing friends she had met during the voyage across the Pacific; a new, intriguing door is opened for her. Should she continue to follow Douglas and his unsavory ambitions or accept this enticing new opportunity and follow her own uncertain compass as her life's voyage continues?