KAMPONG GETAH, FEBRUARY 1942: Joined by others, including Beatrice, the women are taken to their internment camp, where a contingent of Dutch internees join them, including Sister Ulrica. Everyone makes adjustments to their new way of life, and Marion is made leader of the British internees.

Some time having passed, social structure in the camp is breaking down, and more women are becoming sick. Some groups refuse to help other groups. Malaria makes its first appearance, and requests for quinine are denied. Marion organizes education and entertainment committees, and arranges for the women to rebuild one of the huts into a sickbay. Morale improves, at least until two Japanese secret policemen arrive at the camp.

Sally, pregnant before her capture, is coming into her seventh month of pregnancy, and one of the nurses, Nellie, becomes very supportive of her. When the baby is stillborn, their friendship becomes closer, until they hear unwarranted rumors that their friendship is `unnatural'. Judith Bowen has another attack of malaria, making Blanche wonder about all of their eventual fates.

Just before Judith Bowen dies, Marion promises her that she'll take care of Debbie. Blanche becomes determined to escape from the camp. Debbie discovers Blanche's escape plans and barges her way into the escape attempt. Rose covers the escape until she realises that Debbie is also leaving; she tells Marion, who tells the commandant in hopes that he will be lenient with Debbie. Blanche and Debbie are re- captured.

DECEMBER 1942: The women have been split up as they march to their new camp and Marion's group later learns that the second group, including Blanche, Nellie and Sylvia, are being sent to another camp and won't be rejoining them. On the way, they pick up elderly Joss Holbrook during an overnight stay at an abandoned house, left behind by another party for being too ill but who has now recovered fine. Debbie dies when she is bitten by something on the journey and the women insist on giving her a proper burial, at which point Marion learns the Bowens were Jewish. The bedraggled, depleted party arrive at their new camp on January 1st 1943.

2 JANUARY 1943: The ridiculous restrictions of the new camp, such as no swearing, leave the women restless, especially Dorothy and Joss. Dorothy agrees to teach Shinya how to speak English. Marion clashes with Verna over responsibility for ""her women"" but Miss Hasan insists that Verna is the one and only leader and they must obey her. Kate and Rose try to get news on their men from the male camp and Dr Trier tries to get Bea better and back in the infirmary with her. Meanwhile, the women are dressed up in fancy clothes and make-up for a propoganda photo, but the day is ruined when the depressed Sally commits suicide by slashing her wrists with a broken mirror. The Japs come down heavy on everyone as the ladies reel from the shock of Sally's sudden death.

31 MARCH 1943: Marion asks Yamauchi about Christina and the other women from the first camp; next day, Christina and Blanche are returned to join their friends. Bea is crestfallen that they have sent Blanche back and not Nellie. Blanche finds out about Debbie's death and blames Rose for telling the guards about their escape. She teams up with the irrepressible Joss to put one over on the guards. The women learn that some of them are to be repatriated (ie sent home) and Lillian gets her hopes up that she and Bobby will be on the list. When the list comes in, they aren't on it but Dr Trier is. Christina is contacted by the underground, and passes on the news that Rose's boyfriend Bernard and Kate's fiance Tom are both alive and at the nearby men's camp.

22 APRIL 1943: With Christina's help, Rose and Bernard arrange to sneak out of their camps and meet up in the jungle on the night of the Emperor's Birthday, when the guards will be busy at a party. Blanche goes with Rose to act as escort to the meeting place. Rose and Bernard meet and decide to get married when the war is over and they are free. Back at the camp, Kate and Marion learn of the meeting just as the guards do too. Sato orders them all into the jungle to find Rose and Bernard: the women watch them leave and are horrified when shots ring out into the night... Meanwhile, Christina decides she doesn't want to be courier for the underground any more. Joss and Blanche make plans against the guards and Lillian continues to obsess about Bobby's health. Dr Trier is repatriated, leaving Bea in charge of the infirmary. Kate considers becoming a doctor after the war.

12 MAY 1943: Lillian and Bobby are transferred to another camp by Yamauchi following Marion's request, when the other women and children bully them both and refuse to have anything else to do with them. The effects of Rose's shooting still reverberate around the camp: Dorothy cuts all ties with Shinya when she learns it was him who shot Rose. Two months pass and Rose is still hanging on to life, but has lost the will to live. She tries to go on a hunger strike, earning the wrath of Miss Hasan, and later asks Bea to put her out of her misery. Next morning, Bea announces that Rose has died in her sleep but whether she helped her die or not is never revealed.

20 AUGUST 1945: Marion stops Maggie and her mob from attacking Sato and stops Kate taking down the Japanese flag. She explains to the women how things will work now. Yamauchi reveals the wealth of stores hidden away from the women, to their horror. Kate, with Maggie in tow, goes AWOL for a few hours to see Tom at the men's camp but they are stopped en route and warned not to continue by a male POW, who tells them it is too dangerous just yet. Maggie and the POW have sex in a truck. But next day, Yamauchi arranges for the women to visit the men's camp. 19 SEPTEMBER 1945: A bunch of Australian soldiers finally arrive at the camp and are horrified by what they find. The women are told they will be leaving for Singapore next day. Alice is mistaken for a boy by the soldiers. Sato kills himself, watched by Dorothy and Joss. The next morning, Yamauchi bids Marion farewell and apologises for everything. Watched by Yamauchi, the women leave the camp for freedom.

Kate is distraught when Tom dies and seeks comfort from Sister Ulrica, who comes to the funeral even though Tom was a protestant. Kate also decides she definitely wants to become a doctor. Marion visits Yamauci in prison, with Jake's help in pulling strings. He tells her he knew about her diary and let Christina steal the paper for it. She apologises that it will be used to prosecute him. He tells her that he would rather die than go to prison - it is the more honourable way out. Bea has to explain the facts of life to Alice after a boy gets a little too friendly with her. Maggie realises that she is pregnant. Clifford and Marion fight over her visiting Yamauchi and she says she doesn't know if they have a future together.

The women all prepare to go home, and say goodbye to Alice as she sets sail for England. The Jeffersons' marriage is clearly in trouble as Clifford sees how much Marion has changed since she has been in the camps. Jake tells Maggie that he knows she is pregnant and she is torn over what to do about the baby. She eventually decides to go back to England as well. Christina decides to stay in Singapore and become a teacher. Mrs Van Meyer learns, to her horror, that Mr Van Meyer is still alive and tells Marion she doesn't know what to do now, that she never loved him. Joss feels under the weather and is admitted to hospital after being mugged.

Five years after the end of the war, a chance encounter between Marion and Dorothy prompts Marion to try and organise a reunion at Raffles for them and their fellow ex-internees. In Singapore, they are reunited with the rest of their group - Bea, Kate, Christina, Maggie, Alice and the remarried Mrs Van Meyer, now Mrs Forster-Brown. They reminisce about the past and look forward to the future.