The first woman to gain a pilot's licence in the Commonwealth outside Britain, Millicent Bryant steps onto the Sydney Harbour Ferry, Greycliffe, to return home on a sunny November afternoon in 1927. But just off Bradley's Head, the Greycliffe is rammed and sunk by a passenger ship and, in the moments of her drowning, Millicent's recent life and flying achievements rise like final bubbles of breath from the wreckage.

Ninety years later, this innovative biographical work, based on Millicent's rediscovered letters and writings, tells the 'lost' life of a highly individual, modern woman whose passions took her not only to the sky but beyond it.

Entrepreneur, student of Japanese, early motorist, mother of three, would-be novelist, politically engaged citizen - and woman wih a hidden love - this was Millicent Bryant, aviator.