The World My Wilderness is set in 1946 and tells the story of 17 year-old Barbary Deniston, who has been living in Provence with her mother, Helen Michel, for the last seven years. Helen left her husband, Sir Gulliver, and son, Ritchie, in London. She later divorced her husband and married a Frenchman, who was accused of being a conspirator with the Nazis and killed by the French Resistance. The novel begins with Barbary moving to London, at the request of her father, to live with him and his new wife, Pamela, and to study painting at the Slade. Barbary’s stepbrother, Raoul, also moves to London to live with his uncle.