Sixty-year-old Helen Lytton, a retired research scientist, travels to Australia determined to prove her theory that there had once been water in the far, arid north of Western Australia. Joined by her husband and an Aboriginal schoolteacher familiar with the territory, the trio unearth far more on their expedition than they expect, unravelling a path of intrigue that begins in Rome in 1540. Caught between ambition and pride, secrecy and the greed of man, Helen risks her heart and her reputation as she links past to present and one culture to another.