Adelaide in the 1930s is hardly an action packed metropolis. Living at home under constant eye of mother, step-father and a brattish half-sister, Marigold Trent, cub reporter, yearns for more than her daily round. Only the big white ocean liners bear promise of a wider, more exotic world. Then Marigold begins to uncover the sad truth about her real father. And sets out on a voyage of discovery: into the bleak desert heart of her country, and into her own heart as well.