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A man who has been living in the tropics is forced to leave because of ill health. A friend persuades him to rent a property which has been designed to resemble a tropical retreat. In the library there is a portrait of a woman in a plumed hat which fascinates him and, when he becomes delerious with fever, the woman appears.
The wife of a commercial traveller worries continually about her husband, who drives over dangerous roads seeking new clients so that he can gain promotion. She meets the wife of a fisherman who is equally as anxious about her husband who risks his life in a small boat, trying to earn enough to buy a trawler. There is a curious similarity between the two men's experiences which the 'motor-car' wife finds comforting.