Life is simple for eleven-year-old Jason Conti. He lives on the edge of a large Northern New South Wales town with his two older siblings and widowed father. A short walk takes him to school, the river where he spends most of the summer, and the mysterious Goat Hill: the sacred Aboriginal place that casts a wondrous shadow over his neighbourhood. However, Jason’s trouble-free existence is soon put to the test when he happens upon a homemade bracelet that somehow connects him to the spirit of Betty, a young Indigenous girl, who is rumoured to haunt Goat Hill after disappearing almost a decade before.

 

Henry, an Aboriginal elder, spends most of his time at the top of Goat Hill and the rest with his daughter at the Aboriginal housing commission estate hidden a few short kilometres south of Town. Like many of the original people of Australia, he lives a precarious existence: trapped somewhere between his ancient culture and the unforgiving modern world forced heavily upon him. And unfortunately, it is the trappings of that modern world that has taken its toll on his failing health, and he fears the time for justice for his beloved granddaughter is quickly running out.

 

After Jason and Henry form an unlikely friendship — one that does not sit well with many of his so-called good Christian neighbours — Jason ploughs headfirst into an adult world built upon lies, mistrust, and intimidation, following the clues and strange visions, searching for the dark truths hidden behind the doors and beneath the ground of his once seemingly carefree town.