Josie is sent to Digger Town near Mudgee to do research for a PhD. She knows it is a strange place with a strange history, that the people there use no modern technologies, wear nineteenth-century clothing, drive in a horse and cart, and make all their own produce, but she is not prepared for the encounters she has. First there are the tall stories that circulate from Mudgee, then there are town's arch enemies, The Ranters, and then there is Josie's daughter and her new friend Madelaine. Within the town she encounters Eliza, the oldest unmarried woman at 30 years of age; there's Joshua the town historian, and Gerrard who upholds the community's values, and Munno, one of the chosen ones.