When Mrs Browne read Lisa’s tea leaves, she prophesied two patches of trouble, probably connected with a man. Lisa didn’t worry. For years she has wanted “things to happen”, and now at twenty two, she was setting off on a voyage to South Africa and life seemed exciting and infinitely promising. But before she had even set foot aboard ship, she had attracted the unfavourable notice of the liner’s coldly efficient captain, and from then on she found herself struggling in the tide of new and strange emotions.