A killer lurks behind the kindness of the Gibber's Creek community. Under the burnt timber of the church, the police have found the body of Ignatious Mervyn, the man who so viciously attacked Jed Kelly when she was fifteen, and tried to kill her and her unborn child in last year's bushfire. Newcomer Fish Johnstone refuses to believe Jed Kelly's husband, Sam McAlpine, killed Merv to save his wife and child, as the police suspect. But Fish must also face her own mystery - a father who recently appeared as a Vietnamese 'boat person' refugee, but has vanished once again. As the last dingo howls on the hills above the river, Fish finds that Gibber's Creek has many secrets. And some of them are deadly. Set in the late 1970s, this haunting story shows how love and kindness can create the courage to face the past.