Connie is the aging matriarch of the Laffey family. They've lived in Mango, a small town in Queensland, Australia for several generations and become synonymous with the landscape. As she flips through old family photo albums, Connie recalls the history of the family in detail, as a form of therapy. Her brother, Will, for whom she has always possessed a love more profound than brotherly has left home for the last time, having paid all his bills, said his goodbyes, and determined to seek his Creator on his own. Although Connie doesn't blame Will because she could never understand what growing up gay in such a culture could've really been like for him, she mourns for him.
First she remembers her son, Reever, who was a passionate hippy. He once lashed himself to a tree to protest the destruction of the rainforest for more roads. Despite her best efforts, Connie could never reign him in and constantly remained in a state of agony on his behalf. After Will leaves, Reever decides to travel solo up north to seek the place where his great grandfather first settled. He's following in the footsteps of his ancestors, but Reever's departure is tenuously linked with the self-destructive.
In the 1860, Cornelius Laffey moved his family from Canada to Australia and worked as a journalist. He protests the racism against native Aboriginal peoples which the government allows and consequently gets fired. Cornelius and Jessica Olive, his wife, have two kids -- Nadine and George. Nadine gets pregnant young, works in a brothel until she dies young, and leaves her son, Harry, for Jessica to raise. George marries Mag and they give birth to Connie and Will. After George and Mag die unexpectedly Connie grows up with her brother in Harry and his wife, Clytie's, home. The family endures much hardship together, but one day Cornelius walks out on his family never to return. Harry is violently murdered. Eventually Connie and Will are on their own, so she determines to instill Reever with the family heritage so that he may continue the legacy.
