The novel centres on two characters: Voss, a German, and Laura, a young woman, orphaned and new to the colony of New South Wales.

The explorers cross drought-plagued desert, then waterlogged lands until they retreat to a cave where they lie for weeks waiting for the rain to stop.

The story ends some 20 years later at a garden party hosted by Laura's cousin Belle Radclyffe (née Bonner) on the day of the unveiling of a statue of Voss.

White presents the desert as akin to the mind of man, a blank landscape in which pretensions to godliness are brought asunder.

The intellect and pretensions to godliness of Mr Voss are compared unfavourably with the simplicity and earthliness of the pardoned convict Judd.

White wanted Voss to be produced as a film and Sydney musical promoter Harry M. Miller bought the rights.

Losey and scriptwriter David Mercer arrived in Sydney in 1977 but after a few days in the desert scouting locations the director was hospitalised with viral pneumonia.

Maximilian Schell was cast to play the explorer and the script was finalised but Miller was unable to raise sufficient capital for production and the film was never made.