Ten year old Chook knows something is wrong when his father, Kev, bundles him into the car in the middle of the night, leaving their friend Max white-faced, silent and covered in blood. As the two head for Broken Hill and the hope of refuge with one of Kev's old girlfriends, the fierce bond between father and son is tested by Chook's memories of previous hasty exits, of happier times in Bowraville, a girl called Amber and of a laughing young woman named Diane - the last of Kev's girlfriends and the closest thing to a mother Chook has known.
