In a sweetly subversive and humorous coming-of-age story, set in the 1980s, a runaway guilt-ridden hippie artist from Queensland is searching for her unknown father, trying to come to terms with her sister's death and her mother's life-choices, and wondering whether her hasty marriage to a safe Christian man in the suburbs of Melbourne has resolved or complicated her search. Pearlie acts first and thinks later, but her impetuous and enthusiastic approach to life endears her to many, while sending shock waves through the more conservative elements in her community.