Ann and Julia/Jules, later to become Julius, Adelaide-based teenagers, arrange for Jules to become a boy so as to be Ann's dominant lover and eventually her husband; Ann's mum, dying of cancer, agrees to her husband Hector, later Hec, to start a relationship with Glen, someone he meets through work, which will render Hec a woman in order to become Glen's heterosexual spouse or partner. The Medical Ethics Commission of South Australia agrees to both gender alignments; a doctor is found in the person of Brendan McGroom, on Saipan, the Mariana Islands, newly reinstated.

Ann's mother wins, posthumously, a quiz competition; the prize will translate into a journey for Ann and her-still-father-to Saipan; the magazine will fund Jules and part of the medical expenses; they are sending a newly-widowed reporter, Elanca Hartwig who is briefly seduced on arrival by Brendan.

Glen, in addition to Hec, acquires Jules' mother and a young local-born researcher, Aline, while on Saipan; Jules father teams up with Elanca and is given consultant work, as are Glen, Hec and their team, as job and industry creation specialists.

Jules, now Julius, barely survives a postoperative complication caused by his surgically crafted penis, then Ann persuades their mutual teenage lover, a local part Vietnamese girl called Angh, to join their poly-amorous relationship.