Battered veterans of a devastating European war, rebel outcasts too proud to be held in any prison-- for them Australia held no threat, only temptation. For them it was truly the Promised Land. But the serpent had already found a place in Eden. Among those who trekked its sprawling outback and settled its lush valleys were those who existed only to exploit, imprison, and enslave. Pitted against them were passionate women like Katie O'Malley, the beautiful American whose untamable desires would lead her into the dreaming heart of the wilderness ... and rugged men like native-born Justin Broome; like Rick Tempest and George De Lancey, who had survived the cruelest battles of the century only to find their struggles had just begun. Cherishing a dream, they were no longer exiles.