Spanning the period 1898 to 1988, this novel has been written painstakingly and accurately against a background of contemporary history and seasonal variations over those years. Set primarily in south-western Queensland, but venturing as far afield as Egypt, Palestine, New Zealand, New Guinea, the U.S.A. and Asia, the saga records the lives, loves, adventures, fates and friendships of five generations of the Merriton family.

The book opens with the birth in a wagonette on an outback stock route of the central character, Joe Merriton. In his early youth, Joe was a stockman and drover and then served in the First World War as a Trooper in the 2nd Brigade, Australian Light Horse. After the war, Joe marries Diana and they raise their three children at Mt Chillingham, a large cattle station north of Wilga Creek.

Arthur Rowe