Part One
We meet Anna in England, reminiscing about her former life in the Caribbean. Compared to tropical life, England seems drab and dull. She lives with Maudie in Southsea, but they have a hard time finding an apartment because they are regarded as prostitutes. Anna makes friends with a man called Walter, and when she travels later to London, she agrees to go out with him.
Walter takes her to a sleazy dive with bedrooms (an undercover brothel perhaps). Walter solicits Anna, but we learn that Anna is a virgin, and although she is interested in sex, she is perplexed. She locks herself in their bedroom, and he apologizes and calls her a cab. She gets money from Walter after their date which she uses for her basic needs. One night, the two meet and have sex. She becomes like a concubine to Walter.
Anna has an evil stepmother named Hester. She visits Hester and learns that the stepmother has sold Anna's father's estate. She tries to send Anna back home with her Uncle Bo, but Bo defends Anna's right to her inheritance. The family argues through the honor and shame of their predicament.
Things with Walter seem to be waning for Anna back at her apartment. One day, she learns Walter has foreign interests, and her fear of being left behind becomes real. Suddenly, a friend of Walter's explains that Walter is not really in love with her, and Anna leaves without leaving a note.
Part Two
Anna is forced to sell her clothing to pay her rent. She meets Ethel who takes her to a movie and offers her a job at a hand spa. One day Anna meets Laurie who hangs out with two American guys, Carl and Joe. The four all go out one evening and Anna realizes that Laurie is a prostitute. She panics and makes a scene. She decides to take the job as Ethel's spa manicurist.
Part Three
Anna's job as a manicurist turns out to be a front for Ethel's prostitution ring. Ethel is attached to Anna, but Anna is a terrible manicurist, and if she's not willing to sleep with men for money, she might not be able to stay.
Anna becomes sick, and Carl comes to check on her. The two sleep together. Afterward, Ethel approaches Anna, concerned by the affair. Eventually, Anna learns that Carl and Joe are taking vacations from their wives back home, and they leave. Maudie needs to borrow money, so Anna obliges.
Anna decides to try her hand at prostitution with a man whose hand is injured, but before she can sleep with him, she vomits from morning sickness. He is unphased and begins to rape her, but she hits his bad hand and he leaves.
Now at odds with Ethel, Anna and Maudie discuss abortion. Anna accepts medicine to induce an abortion, but she has cold feet and partially wants to keep the child. Laurie says that Vincent can pay for the abortion. He demands that she turn over her letters from Walter, so she does, and they go together to a clinic where the abortion is performed.
Part Four
In a nightmarish turn of events, Anna's abortion goes wrong and her life is threatened. Anna hallucinates about her old life in the tropics. The novel ends with Anna's private thoughts on her situation in life.
