On a cruise in the South Seas, a group of ordinary tourists from the liner make an expedition to an island famous for its extraordinary fire-walking ceremony.  One, more foolhardy than  courageous, decides to try it for himself.  He survives, but something happens to the world he knew and he returns to a ship that is strangely altered. Together with his beautiful companion Margrethe, Graham discovers he’s at the mercy of a higher intelligence.  Pursued from alternate world to alternate world, Graham barely has time to learn a new set of mores and currency before he’s uprooted again.  His problems are not helped by the fact he’s a religious bigot, and that his only marketable skill is a propensity for washing mountains of cutlery. There is no doubt the couple are being tested – but by whom?