In the city of Enugu in the 1970s, young Nwabulu dreams of becoming a typist as she endures her employers' endless chores. Although a housemaid since the age of ten, she is tall and beautiful and in love with a rich man's son. Educated and privileged, Julie is a modern woman. Living on her own, she is happy to collect the gold jewellery love-struck Eugene brings her, but has no intention of becoming his second wife. When dramatic events straight out of a movie force Nwabulu and Julie into a dank room years later, the two women relate the stories of their lives as they await their fate.