'Helen and Bridget ran. Crouching beside her, they saw at their feet a soft but distinct shadow in the sand.

'Helen reached out, touched the shape. 'A baby,' she said, 'it's a baby.'

''You're right. A newborn.'

''I suppose that's why it's here outside the boundary.'

'They could almost hear each other's thoughts. This tiny child was dust. No way they could retrieve it intact.

'In the summer of 1995 in the cemetery of the former destitute children's asylum, Helen Flaherty, an archeologist from Sydney, makes a discovery that will lead her across three continents and several generations of family history. Stripped of everything that has represented stability in her carefully constructed life, she goes in search of Mary-the child born to tell stories-who fled from the asylum one hundred years before.

'With her, we learn about the lives of Mary and her brother Thomas and the other asylum children. Past and present come together as Helen attempts to return what was lost, bringing her into contact with people who help her to reclaim her own past, and the past of her elusive father, Gabriel. In doing so she discovers that families can be built in the most unexpected of ways.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.