It's Christmas in the outback town of Dungirri, and Angie Butler has returned to her old home, perhaps for the last time. Her life is elsewhere, and the ties that have for decades bound her family to the struggling town and its old hotel may soon be broken.

But the arrival of two strangers in town - Owen Caldwell and his grandfather - along with the hot, dry north wind herald a time of challenge and unexpected change.

Owen has no idea why his grandfather has quietly insisted on this Christmas visit to Dungirri, a town he's never been to. But the old doctor has a final quest,...