1975

Cruel, egotistical Noel, a thistledown, a cheap balloon whisking willy-nilly away from the piercing, deflating needle of her fine judgement. Geraldine needs to keep her cool through the highs and the lows, but it's maddening when Noel keeps missing the point. The trek up north was gruelling, yet every plant and bird she saw, every sweaty, purposeless mile she crossed, convinced her that they were made for each other. Back home in Sydney, when there's still a gap between them, he has to be made to see.

Scobie Malone, Cleary's Australian policeman hero, has finally married his upper class girlfriend Lisa. While on honeymoon in New York, she is kidnapped, because she unfortunately happens to be present when the wife of the city's mayor is abducted; she is an innocent victim, taken only to preserve the anonymity of the kidnappers.