Cowboy, Red Kelly and the 'Brothers', they know horses. The accountant, he doesn't, he just seemed to be there. Between them they took on the might and money of Joe Polanski, the other horse trainer in the King Valley. They all wanted the one horse, The Commander, very fast and very hard to manage. The local cop was in Polanski's pocket, the people of the valley divided in their loyalties; after all Polanski employed a lot of them and he paid well. The local publican, Kanga Oldfield, dispensed the booze that fuelled the madness. What was Ellen Chandler's secret? Did she and Red Kelly stand any chance? And the accountant's boy, the irrepressible Itchy, young and vulnerable. Between them they carve a colourful swathe through the Victorian High Country. It all ends in mayhem and tragedy, tearing the community apart, but amazingly there is also a faint glimmer of hope.