Nomvula Nhlapo fell in love at the age of 16 and, to the fury of her father, left home to live with her boyfriend. Four years later, she returned, terminally ill with Aids. Her father refused to allow her into the house. She collapsed under a tree and stayed there for the last few weeks of her life. Nomvula's lonely death sums up the course of the epidemic here. Compared with Aids in the developed world, in South Africa the disease is primarily one affecting women: more women than men carry the virus, they are infected at a younger age, and they die earlier.