Louis Nowra discusses the relationships between the first settlers and the Eora people in Sydney, New South Wales and the effect on each of each other's noises and language sounds. A parallel comment on Nowra's relationship with an elderly neighbour, and her accusations against him of noise making and the effect this has on his sensitivity to sounds around him in modern day Sydney, runs alongside part of the essay.

Nowra examines the phenomenon whereby women form strong emotional attachments, often leading to marriage, with men who are incarcerated in prison or in detention centres.