The main protagonist relates the events that follow a chance meeting with a younger woman that he assists when she is stranded on a country road near her home. He is in his early sixties, working as a botanist at the Botanic Garden of an old established University. The events begin while he is travelling back to his small property in the Western District of Victoria that over a period of years he is revegetating to restore it to the it's natural environment. What really changed his life is the friendship and later relationship that develops between them during the time they spend together working on the discovery of artifacts and documents found on the property that relate to the area's original violent conflict between colonists and indigenous inhabitants. The woman in her mid-thirties and her eight-year-old daughter have recently settled in the picturesque Port Fairy region after her divorce in a domineering and violent marriage. She is now working as a chef at a Boutique Hotel near the foreshore close to the town The re-emergence of the violent ex-husband in her life following her new relationship comes to a climax bringing danger to them all and perhaps their future together.