Edith and Frances, living with their mother on a tiny farm in the
south-east of Australia, are visited by their cousin Leopold and his
Armenian friend Aram. The two young men are taking the long way home
after working on an archaeological dig in Iraq. It is 1937. The modern
world they say, is waiting to erupt.
Among the tales they tell is the story of Gilgamesh, the legendary king
of Uruk, in ancient Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh's great journey of mourning
after the death of his friend Enkidu, and his search for the secret of
eternal life, is to resonate through all of their lives.
In 1939 Edith and her young child set off on an impossible journey of
their own, to find themselves trapped by the outbreak of war. The story
of this journey is the story of encounters and escapes, of friendship
and love, of loss and acceptance.
