Katerina arrives in Sydney by ship as a six-year-old in the 1950s, a bewildered newcomer met by her father, and abandoned by her impulsive and flighty mother. She faces a strange and often hostile new country as she and her father struggle to be accepted. The book follows her journey to adulthood, and plots her professional life as an advocate.

Katerina arrives in Sydney by ship as a six-year-old in the 1950s, a bewildered newcomer met by her father, whom she barely remembers, and abandoned by her impulsive and flighty mother. She faces a strange and often hostile new country as she and her father struggle to be accepted. Growing into a beautiful and intelligent young woman, Katerina renames herself Kate and makes the Northern Beaches of Sydney her home. At the age of seventeen, while the Vietnam War rages and protest marches fill Australian streets, she is swept into a passionate love affair. Life for Kate brings joy and tragedy. Inspired by her own experience as a child, she becomes a legal advocate for displaced persons and is forced to confront questions of life and death, freedom and captivity - choices that will change her life forever.