Ned Sheridan, raised in an orphanage, has no recollection of his childhood before the age of seven when his parents died in tragic circumstances. When his dreams are invaded by ghostly dogs, he fears he is losing his mind. In an effort to unlock the mystery of his past, he tracks down the man who took him to the orphanage, a rabbit trapper called Jack Raithall, now living on a sapphire mining field in central Queensland. But the irascible old man denies all knowledge. With nowhere to turn, Ned decides to stay on in the hope that he will break down Jack's resistance. But has he got the right person? Or is Jack merely another symptom of his own escalating madness? Over the ensuing eighteen months, Ned will be drawn into the political and social milieu of a frontier community vastly different to anything he has ever experienced. He will risk his life to save another. He will fall in love. He will burrow through the earth in search of a fortune. He will become the friend of a man-mountain refugee from the Hungarian revolution; and make an enemy of the most ruthless man on the gemfields. He will wind up in gaol. With the help of a punch-drunk ex-boxer, and a recovering alcoholic with a penchant for gelignite, he will seek his revenge. In the tragi-comic spirit of Henry Lawson and the early bush balladeers of outback Australia, the story of Ned Sheridan's search for identity in an alien world unfolds against a backdrop of natural beauty and elemental catastrophe. Human kindness and treachery, naked loyalty and cold malice guide the actions of the exotic cast of characters. They will forge a chain of events culminating in the story's explosive climax, when Ned will discover his true identity by confronting his living nightmares.