A poignant, moving story of a young country student's years at a Melbourne boarding school in the mid - twentieth century. It is a deeply personal account of perennial teenage struggles: peer pressure, academic expectations, self - doubt, depression, the lure (or not) of the opposite sex and romance, gender roles, questioning authority and 'the meaning of it all'. Told in a rich, lyrical voice, this is a fascinating social and cultural history of that period in Australia.