Mary and Peter are two U.S. school children on their way to visit their uncle in Adelaide, Australia. Mary is fourteen and Peter is nine. While flying over Central Australia their plane crashes and the children are the only survivors. How are two modern children to survive in the Sturt Desert? Soon Mary and Peter meet a thirteen year old, native, Aboriginal boy. He seems to be their savior but Mary cannot bring herself to trust him and modern civilization is a very long way off.

This book raises important questions about the supposed superiority of Western civilization over 'native' cultures, and the supposed inferiority of 'colored' people. It also illustrates the terrible misunderstandings that can result when people of different cultures meet.

This book was published in 1959 and it is important to realize that Australia has changed a great deal since then. Non-English speaking Aboriginals who have never had contact with white people are definitely a thing of the past, and were very rare even in 1959. Beyond the fact of a plane crash the author has not given any indication of the time in which the story is set.