Ella de Vries, a stunning obsedian-eyed beauty who dance with the Royal Ballet, falls in love with Donny McLeod, a Dionysiac rebel and free spirit who 'believes in nothing'. It is the 1970s. They move into a household of political radicals and become casually drawn into extremism. Special Branch infiltration leads to a violent crime that sends Ella into self-imposed exile in Brazil. Donny goes wandering.