Set on an island off the coast of South America, Robert Cosgrove (Marius Goring) is a writer and Nobel Prize winner. His wife, Linda (Helen Cherry) and daughter Tess (Michele Dotrice) live with him in a comfortable villa overlooking a pleasant and peaceful bay on the island of Serez. Linda Cosgrove is not happy on the island and her husband, preoccupied with his work, seems to be deliberately ignoring her. Then strange things begin to happen on the island, and the Cosgroves find themselves involved in a political revolution.