Eccentric, adventurous Christina Goering Meets the anxious but equally enterprising Mrs. Copperfield at a party. Two serious ladies who want to live outside of themselves, they go in search of salvation: Mrs. Copperfield visits Panama with her husband, where she finds solace among the women who live and work in its brothels; while Miss Goering becomes involved with various men. At the end the two women meet again, each changed by her experience.

Mysterious, profound, anarchic and very funny, 'Two Serious Ladies' is a daring, original work that defies analysis.

Jane Bowles (Jane Auer, 1917-73) was born in New York. As a teenager she fell into a bohemian, bisexual scene in Greenwich Village, where she met the writer and composer Paul Bowles, whom she married in 1938. Their honeymoon in Central America provided the locale and incidents for Two Serious Ladies. Jane settled in Morocco in 1948, living in a flat below Paul; although both homosexual, they were devoted companions. Her play, In The Summer House, was performed on Broadway in 1953. She wrote little more, suffering a stroke in 1957, after which her health declined. She died in Malaga, Spain, aged just 56.