Set in rural Victoria, the narrative follows Lily from 1909 when, at the age of three, she is bought by the scrap man for a few shillings, until 1919. Living between the scrap man’s property and the road, selling door-to-door, Lily and her makeshift family are isolated and seen to be outside ‘honest’ society. Despite this, they cannot remain untouched by the world. The scrap man may be able to avoid censure from the Education (for failing to educate the girls) and the Social (for abusing them), but he cannot evade the reach of world events like World War I and the influenza pandemic.

Lily’s understanding of the world, which is deeply connected to the land, sets her apart from the scrap man. In a repeated refrain, her knowledge is juxtaposed with ‘respectable’ forms of literacy. ‘She could not count, add, subtract, divide, spell or write. She knew the ants busy in the dirt, the habits of the birds in the nesting season and the movements of the sun and the moon.’ Such ecological literacy, which is one of the novel’s great strengths, ultimately sustains Lily. Where the scrap man ‘unravels’ in the face of war and ‘pestilence’, Lily can read the changing world and adapt to it.