In 1898, Elliot is 12 when his friend Isaac gives him Alice's old book. But Alice is dead, and when Elliot opens the book, he finds notes and drawings that Alice pencilled in the margins. Isaac says the marks are just scribbles, but Elliot's curiosity is triggered and he wonders if they're actually clues. Step by step, Elliot unravels Alice's notes. He doesn't know what they're pointing at until he's caught up in a battle against the Coopers who are on a mission to cheat Isaac's and Alice's families out of their properties near the Hawkesbury River in NSW. But there's another battle going on too, inside Elliot, and it becomes a challenge he was not prepared to face again.