Trocchi's first novel, and considered by many his most succesful bit of erotica (though there were so many good ones by this author), is the tale of Helen, a girl born to a rural village in Northwest Australia (about as isolated a place as it gets), and a woman of the sea, like that other Helen (both are Greek). Determined to flout convention and chronicle her life--all of life--Helen brings us along as she loses her innocence, is betrayed, freed, imprisoned again, cheated, cheats others, and on, in a journey that takes her to Sydney and to Sea, to Europe and finally to Africa.