Attenborough achieves a childhood ambition of finding and filming the birds-of-paradise described by Alfred Russel Wallace in his book "The Malay Archipelago". He visits New Guinea and surrounding islands to track down these breath-takingly beautiful birds. Their plumage colours and mating dances are spectacular. The environment is so benign that the female birds can build their nests and raise their young without the help of males so the females choose a mate on the basis of his beauty and dancing ability alone. As a result sexual selection has produced the most incredible variety of extravagant displays imaginable.