As a girl, Portia Oakeshott dreamed of caring for the reconstructed dinosaurs roaming the preserve near the south pole of her balmy home planet, New New South Wales.

As a graduate from the planet's top veterinary school and a recent hire by the dinosaur preserve, caring for dinosaurs brings Portia into conflict with land-coveting ranchers, spoiled teenagers, villainous millionaires, religious fanatics, and scheming politicians.

Her adventures take her from the "big smoke" to the "back of Bourke"—from the bustling city of Port Bounty, across a continent of vast fields where farmers raise pigs containing cloned human organs, to the lush Cretaceous forests where dinosaurs roam at the bottom of a world.