A fringe of leaves

Set in Australia in the 1840's. Returning home to England from Van Dieman's Land, the ship is wrecked on the Queensland coast and Mrs. Roxburgh is taken prisoner by a tribe of aborigines, along with the rest of the crew. In the course of her escape, she is torn by conflicting loyalties - to her dead husband, to her rescuer, to her own and to her adoptive class.