Desire – for knowledge, fame or another person – is only fleetingly felt, in a moment of Euphoria. In this tale of euphoria, three young anthropologists meet in 1930's New Guinea and settle in to jointly study the Tam, a female-dominated tribe. Their work draws them together, but their diverse research methods bring them into conflict, as does the love triangle that develops. King uses events in the life of Margaret Mead to inspire this intellectual and erotic tale of the moral contradictions that propelled encounters with remote peoples in the heyday of Western anthropology.