In 1872, Lislei, an Alsatian woman rescued from the bloody turmoil of the Paris Commune, and Kader, an Arab prince who has been captured during the revolt of the Sahara tribesmen against the French colonists, are both deported to New Caledonia. They succeed in escaping aboard an old sailing ship bound for Australia. With them, on board ship, is a little boy, Tridarir, an orphan who is the last representative of his people, the Tasmanian Aboriginals.

Ranging back and forward in time and place, this is a novel of passion and high adventure as well as a deeply moving love story. Set against the background of 19th-century British colonial expansion, it raises an issue that remains highly sensitive in Australia today: the extermination of an island race.