‘Here,’ he shouted, ‘here is a daughter of the working class. Not your idle rich dressed in silks and satins. She has to work every day. Tell them what you think of capitalism,’ he insisted, still gripping my hand. ‘Tell them what it’s like to be a poor woman in grinding employment.’

In the violent and despairing years of Australia’s Great Depression, Judith Larsen grows up on a coaling hulk in the Port Adelaide River. The Australian political landscape is changing and unemployment, hunger, protests and police reprisals spawn new radical ideas for managing society.

Judith falls in love with Harry, an idealistic dreamer who embraces the dogma of the Communist Party while she flourishes as a satirical cartoonist. Political tensions rise between them but when Harry’s life is threatened Judith embarks on a perilous journey across the world to save him. In doing so she comes face to face with the cruelty and oppression of fascism and the importance of those who fight against it.

Drawn from family recollections and based on historical events, this powerful Australian novel tells of brave people caught up in the inspiration and the pity of great but lost causes.