It is the autumn of 1943 and the war is raging in Europe and the Pacific, Giuseppe a young Italian prisoner of war arrives with two other prisoners at a remote farm in the Western Australian wheatbelt.

Giuseppe, or Joe, as they call him - has never seen a place so colourless and flat. And he has never met anyone like Max, the young man struggling to keep the farm going on his own.

Loneliness and exile, passion and conflicting loyalties are the themes which lie at the heart of this story.

"Surreal, the back of the strange foreigner, dressed in a bizarre burgundy uniform, disappearing through the kitchen door in possession of her things. She had never experienced such trespass. Not even in all the army years, sharing everything. Sleep, ablutions, food, even thought. In war, only fear is private."