see her as she is posing. He fascinates her; she has never known a white man and she burns with the desire of wanting him. She lures him, entices him and finally he asks her to live with him. But Pierre soon tires of her. She sees him in the harbor cafes with the alluring Poia and she knows she has lost him. Discarded, her body aching for the want of him, Maeva begins to spend her nights at the waterfront bars. It is a gay but hollow life, always more drinking, more dancing, and men - many men. In her life of abandon she loses track of days and nights, she knows only that desire is always inside her, that no one and nothing can cool the burning. Then she meets Guido who is kind to her. His passion matches her own, but he sees her as a person too; he is the only man who has cared about her for more than just a moment. But, like the other Europeans, Guido, too, leaves one day. Maeva once again returns to the life of the waterfront, but it is no longer exciting to her. At last she realizes that she must go home, where she belongs, where she is needed. She returns, fearful that she no longer will be accepted and finds that it is just as she has left it. The natives do not question her and she takes her place among them, working on the boats and with the nets. Finally she meets Uira at a native dance and she knows that she has met her destiny, that she can be happy being his woman and that soon he will ask her to be his wahine.