Cornelius Monk - Mr Monk to staff and students alike - good teacher but just a teacher, seemingly born middle-aged. An enigma to all until a young girl cracks his shell and frees him forever from his personal labyrinth of guilt and self-doubt about his past. Bevan McGuiness's evocative novel, set in the vivid scenery of Western Australia, takes the reader on a journey in time from 1970's hippies in a ramshackle cabin in the Outback to a modern high school replete with the staffroom politics and pupil's antics.