AustLit

Meston narrates this story as an observer who travels to High Island, the Aboriginal 'Caparra,' in the Frankland Group near Cairns, with his Aboriginal friend Milbirrie and two Chinese. There he meets a man who is testing the faithfulness of the woman he loves by asking her to stay with him alone on the island for a month. Suspense arises over whether the woman will pass the test. Then the man plans to '"take her back to Sydney and make her my wife, in deference to the most baneful misery creating custom that has ever cursed the human race." Such was his complimentary reference to the law of marriage.' When the woman passes the test, the triumph of love is signalled by a 'glorious rainbow' visible from the island at the north peak of Bellenden Ker: 'A bridal veil from the great "Twin Sisters" to the bride on the coral strewn shore of green Caparra!'