Barladong Noongar woman Marion returns home after 30 years in the city as a successful academic to a conservative farming community, which is resisting all calls from beyond its green and prosperous pastures to address the crimes committed against Marion’s people. When old school friend Kellee makes contact with Marion, she reveals to Marion a distressing family secret: that Kellee’s own grandmother had hidden from them that she was Aboriginal. Until recently, Kellee identified as white, but Marion’s family knew the truth. Kellee’s crisis of identity, including rejection by her father, plays out in a community that Marion knows will always try to look the other way.
Kellee leans on Marion to fill in the puzzle pieces about her nan’s past. For her part, Kellee refuses to accept her nan could have been taken as a girl during the Stolen Generations.
At the launch of a history book Marion’s written about the town, Kellee introduces Marion to a young white woman Alisha whose last name Marion recognises as being from an “old family” in the town. Alisha is investigating her ancestors’ arrival to the colony in the early 1800s, which she finds confronting and lonely.