Three women - daughter, mother and aunt - abandon their pampered, privileged lives in The Hague of the 1860s, to set off on an epic journey to the heart of Africa. Since the daughter, Alexine, has inherited a vast fortune from her mysterious tycoon father, the women take with them the family butler and nurse and each her own personal maid. In Cairo they recruit a staff of more than a hundred. The travelers go through a series of now exhilarating, now bizarre and now terrifying adventures, as indomitably they push on with what becomes an exploration not merely of uncharted Africa but of their own innermost selves. Eventually tragedy engulfs each of them in turn.