Using the framing device of a collection of papers made by a missing boy, Steven Messenger, it is a mystery story that explores the construction of history.

When Steven discovers relics from the wreck of the Batavia while on a school camp, (a diary and a mummified hand with a gold ring on it, the two inside an iron pot), he investigates the media frenzy surrounding them, and in particular the stories of two murderers, Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom, from the doomed ship who are banished to what they think is a deserted island for committing crimes of mutiny.

It features an unusual construction, similar to Bram Stoker's Dracula in that the book is an epistolary novel; a compilation of letters, diary entries and photocopies.

In Strange Objects, Gary Crew takes the premise that survivors from the Batavia, made it to the mainland, and lived with the Aboriginal people of the area.

This actually happened, with European settlers noticing that the aboriginals had fair hair and more complex bush huts, which resembled their houses.

To maximize his control over the survivors, he left groups of soldiers on nearby islands to look for water and told them to leave their guns.

What unfolds throughout the novel is the complexity of the Aboriginal past including its history told in rock art and passed down in oral stories.