[1] In a dusty Queensland country town young Vinny Lalor is bullied by her fellow students at the local high school.

In a country town, where rumour becomes truth, gossip is the primary conversation and small-minded meanness predominates, the two teachers, while understanding the place, do not fully anticipate the risks they are taking.

The novel focuses on the cruel pettiness of a small town country community as it is experienced by Vinny, Helen Striebel and English teacher Moller.

The dusty Queensland tropical background and small town meanness are significant but secondary to the main themes of desired love and a lack of intellectual stimuli.

Joyce Halstead in The Australian Women's Weekly was impressed: "This gifted writer has drawn with a scholar's touch a sensitive and intense study in human emotions played out against the cruel pettiness of a small town community.