On a steamy summer day in 1964, sixteen-year-old Guy Harmon is drawn into a situation more dangerous than even his youthful imagination could have devised. Life in Roxborough, his rural Australian hometown, has never been this mysterious or confusing-or exciting.
On the outskirts of town, he meets Amy, the girl of his dreams, along with her mother, Ruth. Smitt en as only a teen can be, he doesn't pick up a few warning signs. Guy has no way to know that this budding love story will end poorly for all involved. Soon, he is ensnared in a web of violence and lies, and his life spins out of control. Th e summer becomes a torturous endurance race as a man is murdered and the killers recruit Guy to help dispose of the body. One of his friends, an innocent witness to the murder, wonders if he is safe. What's more, Amy and Ruth turn out to be not as trustworthy as he thought they'd be.
Now an adult, Guy returns to Roxborough to say goodbye to a dear childhood friend who has died suddenly. The past and the present swirl together as Guy struggles desperately to make sense of those senseless summer days of sixty-four.