Christmastime, 1922. Sydney is at last waking from the nightmare of the Great War, and rekindled hope brings a burst of new energy to the city.

Dotty Bluebrook does not share the shift in mood. Drifting through her rich-girl routine of shopping and social engagements, she is secretly mourning the loss of a forbidden lover who went off to fight and never returned. He's been missing in action for four long years - and she's losing her mind.

Clarinda Littlemore is grieving losses of a more concrete kind. Her beloved father and brothers are unquestionably dead - leaving her and her mother in poverty. Taking a job in the Ladies' Rest and Writing Room of an elegant department store, Clarinda is craving a life beyond filling inkpots and replenishing stationery supplies.

One hot summer morning, when Dotty sweeps into the rose-pink haven of the writing room to pen a letter to her non-existent man, Clarinda watches her, and a recognition flares with resentment at her privilege. But soon she senses that Dotty's in some desperate trouble of her own and, with recognition ever deepening, Clarinda takes a chance to rescue them both.

Winner of the 20/40 Finlay Lloyd Prize