This book explores migration as a rite of passage. It is the story of Mark, a boy growing up in southern Denmark and northern Germany toward the end of WWII. After the death of his mother, Mark migrates to Australia where his first home is the Bonnegilla migrant camp. Mark is offered a clerical position at Melbourne University, and later enrolls as a student. The story ends with Mark finally receiving what he interprets as a call to life. It is as if, after the often harrowing hard work of growing up and settling into a new country, he feels he is about to set off into the independence of his future.