The story opens in Melbourne, where Amaryllis Merewether, aged 16, is told her father has died and that she is to inherit his farm on the North coast of New South Wales.

The snooty schoolgirl and the ramshackle old pensioner are clearly at odds, yet both are curious about the farm and agree to take the train together and visit their property.

The pair are captivated by the beautiful, almost tropical landscape, and soon its luxuriance begins to work its magic on lonely, isolated Ryl and tetchy Dusty.

Although the book's undercurrents of mixed-race shame and racial secrecy had caused the novel to fall from favour, it is now considered worthy of study in secondary schools as a fascinating glimpse of a little-known episode in Australia's history, when Pacific Islanders were shipped in to work on plantations in NSW and Queensland.

[3] The house featuring in the television series is named "Lovat Brae" and was built by Thomas Fraser in 1904 and still exists today.