Against the backdrop of coastal Australia in the sixties, and the lawless rural villages and towns in France at the concluding stages of WWII, comes a story about impossible love, abandonment, and far-reaching consequences.

Danny wants to be like every other teenager—accepted by his peers and enjoying the freedoms that come with youth and innocence. But he has parents who make him different and life more complicated—a silent, angry father, a war hero, and a French mother, a refugee, who finds difficulty assimilating into the small coastal society where they have attempted to rebuild their lives.

After his mother leaves one Saturday, Danny’s future grows more uncertain, and he must bear his father’s detachment and navigate a community that judges them differently. Only his young neighbour, Vanessa, attempts to remedy his loneliness, eager to learn as much about his mother’s past as Danny does. But the more the pair uncovers about his parents’ love affair in France at the concluding stages of war, the more confused and alienated he becomes.

The effects of war are long over, but for Danny, who must find ways to block out the loss, life’s battles are just beginning.