Rebecca, you must find the Childstones and give them back. My mother told me to find them. She had the dream too. But I never had the time... never did get back to the quest. They were the sacred relics of the local Aborigines. There'll be no peace for us until they're returned to their rightful home.

The trail meanders back through the interwoven lives of the seven daughters, back through Rebecca's ancestors: the unloved schoolgirl encountering the '60s sexual revolution; the cynical Second World War concert pianist; the older woman wandering the desert; the nurse at the time of the influenza epidemic; the deserting soldier killed on the Somme; the brilliant Jenny Wren, the music hall diva; betrayed Mary, the settler's wife, and her first encounter with the Aborigines; winding finally to the vengeful Poll McPherson on the Ballarat goldfields in the 1850s.

For Rebecca, lost in the past, finding the Childstones is only the beginning of her story.