Alan and Judy meet as teachers in the Australian Territory of Papua and New Guinea, where they embrace Independence - and each other - before returning to Australia and separating. A generation later their daughter Rebecca joins the campaign for an independent Irian Jaya. On the border she is assaulted, and evacuated to Port Moresby General Hospital.

When Alan comes to the rescue, he and his friends flounder in a world of security experts, raskols, shady politicians and unhappy bureaucrats.

He also falls in love with Anna, former student, now journalist. She won't live in Canberra, so Alan must identify and disarm their enemies and make a new life in a country that has become strange to him, unpredictable but always exciting.

In Trial Separation, Donald Denoon described the formation of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea and its separation from Australia. In this novel he explores its effects on the lives of Papua New Guineans and Australians.