When a worldwide plague kills off most of England's male population, the highly conventional Mr. Gosling and his daughters begin to fulfill "long-thwarted tendencies and desires." Gosling abandons his family for a life of lechery, leaving his daughters--who have never been permitted to learn self-reliance--to loot abandoned shops. Eventually, the Gosling girls find a place in a female-dominated agricultural commune...but their new life is threatened by their elders' prejudices about free love!