The novel opens with eight-year-old Mathinna, a member of the aboriginal Palawa people, hiding in the brush on Flinders Island, a remote location off the coast of Australia “where her people had been exiled before she was born” (1). She recalls how, three days prior, the Governor of Australia and his wife—John and Lady Jane Franklin—arrived at Wybalenna, the small town on Flinders Island where Mathinna grew up. The Franklins are decked in the finest clothes and jewelry—a far cry from the starving and ill-clothed aboriginals who wait to welcome them.

The night before their arrival, the Palawa elders gather to discuss how to welcome these foreign people. The children are forced to learn dances to amuse and entertain Lady Jane, who is well known as an admirer of all things aboriginal—down to her collection of “Aboriginal skulls” (2). The Franklins arrive and settle in George Robinson’s home, the Englishman in charge of Flinders Island. The next day, the natives bring them homemade jewelry and perform acts of pretend savagery, such as spear-throwing contests and mock battles. Soon after, the Palawa children parade in front of Lady Jane. She is intrigued by Mathinna, which is to be expected—Mathinna is the daughter of the chief of the Lowreenne tribe, and, although he died from tuberculosis when she was young, Mathinna is still viewed as a princess.