Two teenage sisters--Bernadette, the explorer and skeptic; and Jane, the Christian optimist--engage in an unorthodox battle for the truth of their attack in the Australian bush. As they grow up, each seeks refuge in their own world: Bernadette in the maps and writings of the 19th century explorer Charles Stuart, Jane in her faith and teaching. Their parents, Audrey and Robert, unaware of what's happened, deal with their own break in the security of their marriage. Audrey copes by creating a button quilt, its patterns an intricate topography hinting at the family's secrets and betrayals, while, as a form of penance, their father inventories the buttons sent from all over the country by friends, strangers, and schoolchildren. As the quilt grows to epic proportions, and the years pass with the growing burden of what's unsaid, and denied, and hidden, each character bends the boundaries of time and memory to negotiate with the trauma that has separated them from themselves and each other.