ANGELS AND INSECTS

William Adamson a naturalist is shipwrecked on his way back from the Amazon in 1858, and all his specimens are lost. He returns to England penniless. Befriended by a wealthy collector of flora and fauna, William is instantly consumed with desire for his breathtakingly beautiful daughter, Eugenia. Their shy courtship is the picture of Victorian decorum but on their wedding night, Eugenia displays an unexpected sexual passion. They rapidly produce a brood of babies. But conjugal bliss turns into confusion and isolation for William, and he buries himself in his work, a study of ants that he has undertaken with Matty Crompton, a pour relative of the family. The insects and the human worlds finally merge when the full horror of betrayal and deceit are revealed.