Four disparate individuals living in the Australian suburb of Sarsaparilla find their lives converging through shared visionary experiences that challenge the social order of their community. The narrative follows an Aborigine artist, a Holocaust survivor, a washerwoman, and an heiress as they navigate personal trauma and societal alienation. Each character operates under the weight of their unique history, facing opposition from a conformist and often cruel suburban environment. The novel utilizes a shifting third-person perspective to examine the internal lives of these figures, contrasting their spiritual insights with the mundane and often hostile reality of their surroundings.

Readers and critics frequently note the dense, challenging prose style that characterizes White's approach to character development. Discussion often centers on the complex interplay between the characters' internal spiritual lives and the external pressures of their environment. Many observers highlight the effectiveness of the author's atmospheric world-building, which renders the Australian suburb as both a physical location and a psychological landscape. The thematic focus on the nature of suffering and the possibility of transcendence remains a primary point of analysis for those examining the work's enduring impact. Readers often find the pacing deliberate, requiring patience to fully appreciate the intricate connections between the four protagonists.