A couple decides to turn their backs on civilization to build their private paradise on a desert island. However, a millionaire passing through the island makes them a sensation, making a European countess want to take over their island.

In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona meets the exotic, pampered Tamsin. To seal their friendship, Mona introduces Tamsin to her born-again Christian brother and helps her spy on her adulterous father. Bound together by their secrets, the two girls see their friendship deepen and enter into dangerous waters.

A man and a woman meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet drawn to each other.

Set against the collapse of the Russian Empire, it revolves around the friendship between Simon Arshaki Ter-Petrosyan, the future Bolshevik revolutionary known as Kamo, and his childhood friend 'Soso', who became the dictator Stalin.

A struggle for power between a pianist and his unruly muse turns murderous.