Bees in Paradise 1944

On a remote, uncharted isle in the Atlantic, northwest of Freetown, Paradise Island is ruled by a stern, all-female regime that resembles a hive. the Queen Antoinette Cellier presides over a community of around two thousand women, and the town crier has just reported a troubling lull in births: only two have occurred in the last eighteen months, and both were boys. The Queen bluntly tells Jani Jean Kent, the colony’s Minister of Propaganda, that the only thing worse than boys is men, and she pushes for more marriages, even musing about conscription. Yet Jani points out a rigid reality: the male “drones” are reluctant to marry because, after a two-month honeymoon, the bridegrooms are executed, sealing a grim, self-defeating cycle for the colony’s social order.

An Allied bomber plane falls into trouble and four airmen bail out, parachuting onto Paradise Island. They are quickly captured by the island’s women, and the journalist Rouana Anne Shelton sets her sights on the diminutive Arthur Tucker Arthur Askey, the plane’s mechanic. The quartet of aircrew includes the charismatic pilot as Peter Lovell Peter Graves, the steady mechanic Arthur Tucker Arthur Askey, and two others—the radio operator Ronnie Ronald Shiner and the man called Max Adler Max Bacon. Brought before the queen, the airmen are offered freedom to move about the island and the possibility of leaving if they agree to marry within the colony, though the queen hints at a death sentence if they refuse. The men, still trying to navigate the island’s constraints, begin to form complicated attachments: Peter Lovell has fallen for Jani, while Jani is drawn to the quiet courage she sees in Peter.

As relations unfold, Arthur and his friend Max sneak into the sacred Temple of the Hive, where the island’s laws are written. There they learn two crucial rules: the two-month honeymoon precedes a death sentence for the groom, and a betrothal is said to occur whenever two people share wine. Back in the town’s baths, Jani senses the growing unrest among the inhabitants who feel the men have been allocated unfairly. She attempts to reassure them that no formal betrothal has occurred yet, and she begins to propose ideas—even ideas of communism—to defuse tensions while maintaining her own sense of noblesse. To buy time and keep hope alive, she devises a noble compromise that could benefit everyone, even if it risks compromising her chance with Peter.

The island’s cup final of the rugby league becomes a dramatic focal point the following day. The plan is that the winning team will draw lots, and four winners will be granted husbands from among the airmen. Arthur, acting as referee, is knocked out during the match, and when he recovers, Rouana cunningly gets him to drink wine with her, a move that leads to a frantic flight as he tries to escape. With Peter and Jani backing him, Arthur disguises himself as a maid in Jani’s household, hoping to prove to Jani that their world can be different. He confesses his love in a roundabout way, but Jani remains cautious, and Rouana presses her advantage in the shadows.

Their ruse comes undone when Arthur ends up crashing into the queen’s bedchamber during a rooftop escape. He pleads that the island’s laws are ridiculous, but the queen remains deaf to reform, though she does not betray him to her guards. The court convenes the next day, and Rouana asks for the death sentence to be waived, citing a twenty-year-old precedent of a woman who fell in love with a man. However, when Arthur testifies that he does not love Rouana, the verdict is sealed: he is condemned to death by leaping from the highest cliff.

Just as dawn breaks and the execution looms, a glimmer of rescue arrives. Ronnie—the aircrew’s radio operator—has managed to repair the plane’s radio, and help is on the way. In a bold, comic turn, Ronnie and Max arrive in drag to spring Arthur. They sprint toward the shore, and Jani has arranged a waiting boat on the beach. The escape unfolds against the island’s strange code of law, its shifting loyalties, and the stubborn hope that a world governed by comic opulence and rigid rules can still be turned toward mercy, love, and a future where people are judged not by their gender but by their choices and courage.