Deep in the heart of Australia’s high country, along an ancient, hidden track, live Molly Johnson and her four children, another on the way. Husband Joe is away months at a time droving livestock up north, leaving his family in the bush to fend for itself. Molly’s children are her world, and life is hard and precarious with only a shotgun for protection-but it can be harder when Joe’s around.
At just twelve years of age Molly’s eldest son Danny is the true man of the house, determined to see his mother and siblings safe-from raging floodwaters, hunger and intruders, both man and reptile. Danny is mature beyond his years, but there are some things no child should see. He knows more than most just what it takes to be a drover’s wife.
One night under the moon’s watch, Molly has a visitor of a different kind-a black ‘story keeper’, Yadaka. He’s on the run from authorities in the nearby town, and exchanges kindness for shelter. Both know that justice in this land caught between two worlds can be as brutal as it’s landscape. But in their short time together Yadaka shows Molly a secret truth, and the strength to imagine a different path.
