'Lance Dillon is owner of a new cattle station on the southern fringe of Australia's Arnhem Land. When an Aboriginal hunting party targets Dillon's prize bull for a ritual killing, and then spears Dillon in the shoulder, it's clear they want him of their traditional land.
'Under the merciless rays of the burning sun, the wounded Dillon flees into the bush, with expert tracker Mundaru in hot pursuit.
'Dillon's city-born wife Mary and handsome local policeman Neil Adams set out to search for her husband. The gruelling journey throws them together, and it is not long before each is secretly hoping that Dillon is never found alive.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Allen & Unwin, 2017).
Compared on Morris West's novel, this screenplay by Tim Burstall and Ross Dimsey focuses more heavily on the question of land rights and the clash between Aboriginal and settler cultures (in the conflict between Lance Dillon and Mundaru) and pulls back on the romantic sub-plot between Dillon's wife Mary and local policeman Sergeant Neil Adams.