Wouldn't it be great to be a bird for a day? To be truly free as anything alive can be. Free, Jossie. Wouldn't it be insane?' When Joss sets off down the south coast, she is fleeing both a miserable marriage and her lonely childhood. Fleeing from all her wasted years. At the same time she is pursuing Karmi, a long-ago friend who once showed her another way to live. The magnetic, free-living Karmi embodies everything Joss wants to be, even after their shared adventures come to an abrupt end. Now Joss is fleeing to rebuild her life. She still believes Karmi has the key, but finding her proves not so easy. The coastal region is facing changes, from forest logging to spreading urbanisation. Joss is thrust into town life in Mungabula, then a remote bush settlement, where she takes on Karmi's model of courage to absolve her past. Not the least of her challenges is the laconic but disarming Fletch...