During the darkest days of the Cold War, in the remote wilderness of a South Australian desert, the future of an infant nation is being decided - without its people's knowledge.

In the spring of 1956, British Lieutenant Daniel Gardiner accepts a twelve-month posting to Maralinga, South Australia, on a promise of rapid promotion. Instead he finds himself in a violent and unforgiving landscape, infected with the unique madness and excitement born from involvement in a nuclear testing site.

Adventurous journalist Elizabeth Hoffmann travels halfway around the world searching for answers, and her lost love. Here she discovers the truth about this desolate place, and the story of the innocent people who had walked their land unhindered for forty thousand years, until now . . .