The thirteen stories in this important collection span the period from 1957 to 1996, creating a vivid portrait of Australian life during these years. Dorothy Hewett casts her perceptive eye over race relations, single mothers, communism, dodging the law - nothing is too great or too small for her unstinting gaze. Her characters are workers, battlers, thinkers, rebels, misfits and romantics. They're tough-minded, quick-witted. Dreamers, itinerants, ideologues who talk the talk but never quite manage to live up to it...