Tales of the South Pacific is a series of short stories which are sequential and inter related. The 2 stories most integral to the musical are “Our Heroine” about Nellie Forbush and “Fo Dolla” which introduces Bloody Mary. Other characters like Luther Billis and Cable appear throughout the book. Hammerstein took these stories and formed a narrative as he had done for Showboat before and Flower Drum Song subsequently.
