Venezuela, 1953. The war is over and people are trying to rebuild their lives. For the privileged expat community around the Maracaibo oilfields life is still a hedonistic round of cocktail parties, salacious gossip, and illicit liaisons. At the centre of this glamorous, hard-drinking 'set' is Texan oilman, Jack Lindberg, and his beautiful English wife, Vivienne. But the war has changed every- thing. Observing the shifts and subterfuges of their world is Tony - Vivienne's eleven year-old daughter. As the cracks begin to show in her parents' marriage, and as the facade of colonial society starts to disintegrate, a tragic drama unfolds that will change her life forever.