In 1963 Lizzie is raped by three men in Sydney when fifteen. She becomes pregnant but is determined not to surrender her child for adoption.
This is a novel about a girl from inner Sydney. Her family is poor, her father dies when she is nine and life is hard. It is story of her struggle to survive and make a life of her own, first as a prostitute, then with her child in a remote outback town.
This is the second book in the series, "Old Balmain House" and begins in the same house as the first book and continues part of the story of Sophie, the girl who vanished half a century ago. Lizzie, aged eight, meets Sophie, the girl who lived in the same bedroom as a child. Sophie becomes her friend.
When Lizzie turns fifteen Sophie tries to warn her not to go in a car with three older boys.
Lizzie ignores her warning and is brutally raped by these three men.
Lizzie becomes pregnant and is determined to keep her child. She leaves Sydney and goes to Melbourne, to have and keep her baby. Here, penniless and desperate, she become a prostitute the only way she can support herself. She is discovered and the authorities try to take her child.
She flees to Broome, a small town in the furthest corner of of Australia. Here she assumes the role of widow with a small child and settles into this friendly town. Her life is good until a man from her former life finds her and threatens to expose her or harm her child.
She runs again. On a remote desert road her car breaks down. Without water, with her six year old daughter beside her, they face death from thirst. Help comes in an unexpected way. She takes refuge in a local aboriginal community.
Her school friend from Balmain, now a journalist, seeks retribution from the the men who raped Lizzie many years ago and have continued their ways with others. Now, as successful business men, they seek to use the law to deny justice.All Rights Reserved