In the first place, Abigail Kirk was not Abigail at all. She had been christened Lynette.
This is a time travel novel in which young Abigail Kirk is tossed back through the decades into the Victorian Era. The opening lines of the story situate Abigail immediately as a figure who sense of identity is fragile yet whose ability to deal with traumatic changes to her life is met head-on. It is she who makes the decision to go from being Lynette—which she had been for the first decade of her existence—to Abigail; a decision made in reaction to the decision by her father to leave his mother and, by connection, the entire family for another woman.
“But who’s looking after the black men?”
“They’re looking after themselves.”
“Black men canna look after themselves. Don’t be daft!”
The travel through time whisks Abigail from 1970’s Australia to the Sydney of the 1870’s. The dialect of the family she winds up living with in the past reflects their Scottish heritage, however, rather than depicting the particular qualities of the Australian accent which is much more familiar to readers outside upside of Down Under than it was at the time. The “black men” referred to here should not be confused with American slaves; Beatie is specifically referring to Australia’s indigenous Aborigines who have also suffered extreme discrimination at the hands of a racist and oppressive majority of immigrant invaders of their land.
“The Prophecy is for each fifth generation, when it is so ordered that the Gift is at risk. This is the fifth generation from my grandfather’s time, when there wunna a Tallisker left but himself, after the Stuart wars in Scotland.”
Eventually, Abigail learns that she has been welcomed into the bosom of the family in the past because they believe she is sent there for a purpose. She is believed to be the Stranger who save family’s “Gift.” This “Gift” has allowed certain members of the lineage to see into the future as well as endow them with healing powers and keys to secret knowledge. The Prophecy is inextricably linked with the catch at play here: “The Gift could be handed down by the men of the family, but never possessed by them.”
