What happens when Julia, a mature woman fully recovered from an amicable divorce after twenty-five years of marriage, is suddenly obliged to face up to her sexuality? Puzzled, perhaps even alarmed, at the emergence of this phantom from her past, she seeks counselling. Because she is a writer and a singer, the suggestion is made that she explains what has happened by copying the style of a series of musical variations. But what she produces is in fact wide of the truth. She is then sent back to the beginning to rewrite what actually happened before a conclusion is reached that takes more than one person by surprise.