The Yoruban Princess of Ijekuta and an Ibo boy fall in love. In fact it is love at first sight. Her father will not allow her to marry a man from any other tribe as she will one day become Queen and her husband will become King. In his mind accepting a stranger as his daughter’s husband will taint their lineage. For this reason the relationship starts off a secret one and when both parents find out about it they are vehemently against it.

Alice is from a poor family. One day she comes home from school to be told that her parents can no longer afford to educate her. Her mother tries to send her to her grandmother’s house but Alice is adamant that she wants to stay at home. Eventually Alice is persuaded to go to her uncle and his wife’s house as a house girl. They tell her mother that they will send her to school in the city, of course this falls apart pretty quickly as her uncle’s wife has her own plans for Alice.

Two couples find themselves in relationships of circumstance and convenience rather than love. Kelvin ends up marrying his wife Dora after she tells him that she is pregnant after casually sleeping together a few times. He does not love her but wants to face up to his responsibilities as a man and make an “honest woman” of her. His best friend Nelson knows that he is pining for his one true love that he has recently split up with and advises him against the marriage seeing it as a recipe for disaster.

Clara marries a man old enough to be her father very much against her family’s wishes. She feels duty bound to him as he saved her life. Not long after he becomes an invalid and she starts to feel a pity rather than a romantic love for him, and starts having an affair with someone her own age.

Jim is a playboy whose sole goal is to find a rich woman to marry so that he can spend the rest of his days freeloading. Along the way there are casualties, which he discards without a care. Charlene has sworn off men after being raised by a man that showed her no love solely due to the fact that she was born female and considered a curse as he was the first male in the family to have borne a female rather than male child. She has vowed never to trust or allow a man close to her to avoid being hurt the way her father hurt her.

Nicky meets Chris on campus. He expresses interest in getting to know her better. They start of as friends and then he “toasts” her until she falls for him. They appear to be love’s young dream by all accounts. However her new beau has a more sinister side to him that is soon to be uncovered.