Marlene hosts a dinner party in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird (1831- 1904) - the adventurous traveller, Lady Nijo (b1258) - the mediaeval courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan, Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell, Pope Joan - the transvestite early female pope and last but n ...