George Todman is a middle-aged recluse, drinking his way to oblivion in the remote West Coast bush. His life is transformed by Rainbow, the beautiful flower child who dances naked for him on the far bank of the river. When Rainbow is found dead, Todman is drawn into the hunt for her killer. The locals suspect him but Linda Loveridge, a feisty and irreverent Detective Constable, finds he is an ally. Together they explore the tensions in a community on the outer edge of civilisation: prejudice, mistrust of outsiders, logging feuds, drug traffic, rumours of witchcraft and corruption; and set against these, the humour and eccentricity that still flourish in one of the last, beautiful frontiers.