Her husband was killed in the Great War. His wife is dead. Why not journey to the other side of the world and start again from scratch? What does it matter if they don't know each other, they will in time, after all?

Norah thinks it is the most stupid idea she has ever heard. But Andrew needs no persuading. His kids are without a mother, he lives in a Lancashire town with no prospects: he can't wait to build a new life for himself in Australia. The government will even give ex-servicemen a farm, as long as they clear the land themselves. The only thing he needs is a wife to join him and time is short.

Then Norah's father dies and there is nowhere for her or her daughter to go. For the first time in her life she decides to do something crazy. It may be madness to follow a man she barely knows to an untamed land of heat, spiders and endless bush far from home, but it may also be the answer to all her dreams.