South Australia, 1882 Eighteen year old Bethany Friend leaves Adelaide with her baker father and younger sister to reopen Farina Bakery. They travel hundreds of miles overland on dusty corrugated tracks only to be assaulted and robbed some twenty miles short of Farina. Joseph Elliot, the former baker, had mysteriously disappeared leaving all his possessions behind. Penniless, her father bedridden, Bethany sells Elliot's clothing and prepares to reopen the bakery. She employs Lewis Hardy the former baker's apprentice. Despite a culture of racial segregation, Bethany befriends Arif Durrani, an erudite Afghan cameleer. With Arif's help, she learns how to ride a camel and explore the surrounding gibber plains and red sand dunes. Her spirited nature and Arif's reserve makes for a contentious relationship. A year later, Elliot's remains are discovered. A suspect is apprehended. Bethany suspects any number of people had reason to murder the unscrupulous baker.
