Robert Carter

They're young, unemployed and on the march - from Glasgow, Liverpool and Swansea to London.

The year is 1950 and an English couple, Louise and Michael, have arrived in French-occupied Indochina to cover a story on a French-owned rubber plantation. They are to be the guests of the enigmatic plantation overseer, Daniel, and his beautiful yet difficult daughter Viola, at their elegant, decaying villa amid a tropical jungle. Michael and Louise hope that some time spent working in an exotic location will help reignite the passion in their floundering marriage. Instead they become unwittingly involved in the personal, sexual and political tensions of their hosts. Daniel is desperate to hold onto a way of life no longer possible in a country struggling for independence, bringing him into conflict with not only his daughter but also with his adopted country.

With his distinctive voice and unusual view of life, Harris takes us through his story: a harrowing journey of humour, grief, resolution and redemption. Harris, as a child of five, sits underneath his house amongst the cobwebs making 'sugar' by pounding sandstone rocks into fine grains and wrapping them into bags. Harris at 17 falls in love with Helen and when a tragic accident leads to a breakdown he ends up at 'The Cottage'... Thrust up against the lives of other innocent victims, Harris begins to make sense of his own guilt, grief and the secret of his past.

Four people, isolated in their different ways are trapped in the desert and changed forever. Against impossible odds, can they find meaning - life, laughter and love before it is too late?