On the edges of the salt lakes, in the harsh Mallee country of north-west Victoria in the 1920s, isolated soldier-settler farms struggle to survive the dust and despair. There are few travellers: just the Debt Adjuster, or the Indian hawker Cabel Singh. Or a girl who turns up out of nowhere. Eileen. When Eileen disappears, a young boy sets out with his horse and his pup to find her, certain the mysterious Cabel Singh can help him. In the tradition of Cormac McCarthy, this haunting and be autifully written novel is both a journey through the Australian lands cape and a meditation on the nature of imagination and desire.