August receives news of Poppy's death while living in London and decides to return to Australia.

August arrives at Prosperous Farm and Elsie reveals the government plans to evict the family for a tin mine.

Eddie Falstaff tells August that Poppy was writing a book and that a mining company is developing on the property.

Aunt Mary and Aunt Missy arrive at Prosperous Farm for the funeral and the family discusses the damage the tin mine will cause.

August inspects the mining site and encounters a group of water protectors who have set up camp nearby.

Joey arrives for Poppy's funeral and reveals that the Falstaff family was responsible for calling the mining company.

A brolga appears during Poppy's funeral and August feels she recognizes her missing sister Jedda in the bird.

August discovers Poppy's stack of overdue library books and realizes he had been researching how to save Prosperous Farm.

Eddie reveals that his family secretly sold Gondiwindi cultural artifacts to the Australian History Museum.

August and Aunt Missy find Reverend Greenleaf's preserved letter at the local library and realize it supports a Native Title claim.

August and Aunt Missy visit the Historic Museum but are told the Gondiwindi artifacts cannot be retrieved in time to stop the mine.

August confronts Aunt Nicki, who admits she hid Poppy's dictionary but agrees to retrieve it from the council office.

Police use water cannons and tear gas against protesters who have chained themselves to mining machinery at Prosperous.

Nicki arrives at the protest carrying Poppy's dictionary, preserved in a childhood tape recorder and a stack of papers.

Mining machinery uncovers the old Prosperous Mission graveyard on the site, halting development and confirming the land's cultural significance.

When Poppy Gondiwindi dies, his granddaughter August returns from London to find her family facing eviction from their ancestral home for a tin mine. Searching for a book Poppy was writing, August uncovers that her neighbor Eddie's family sold Gondiwindi cultural artifacts to a city museum, and she discovers a historical letter that may support a Native Title claim. August and her Aunt Missy race to recover evidence before the mine breaks ground, visiting the museum and the local library. As protesters chain themselves to mining machinery at Prosperous, August confronts her Aunt Nicki, who admits she hid Poppy's dictionary. When Nicki arrives at the protest with the dictionary, mining machinery uncovers the old mission graveyard, halting development and confirming the land's deep cultural significance.

At the Boys' Home, a woman at the gate teaches Poppy a Wiradjuri word for 'lost, but not forever,' his first time-travel experience.

August's parents are arrested for growing marijuana, and August and Jedda are sent to live with their grandparents in Massacre Plains.

Reverend Greenleaf arrives in Australia as a child with his family, later becomes ordained, and travels the country as an evangelist.

Greenleaf comes across a camp where Indigenous people have been forced into the interior by white settlers and decides to help.

Poppy takes in his sister Mary and her son Jimmy, ignoring signs that something is deeply wrong with Jimmy.

August drives into town and encounters old schoolmate Alena Dimitri, who shares news about the economic downturn caused by the mine debate.

Greenleaf founds Prosperous Mission in Massacre Plains with the labor of two enslaved Indigenous men.

Greenleaf realizes his Indigenous congregation has been praying to the Kengal rock formation rather than the Christian God.

White settlers break down the mission fences, set fire to the men's quarters, and fatally shoot a mission member named Wowhely.

The Aborigines Protection Board visits Prosperous Mission and agrees to provide funding in exchange for World's Fair display pieces.

The Australian government issues a declaration forcing the mission to hand over all residents deemed not 'full-blooded' to be put to work.

Poppy forces Jimmy out of his house at spearpoint after Jedda's disappearance and strikes him with a spear when he tries to run.

Anti-German sentiment rises and Greenleaf is taken to the police station and threatened with placement in an internment camp.

Poppy meets Elsie when she arrives from the city as part of a university group protesting racial discrimination at the local pool.

Greenleaf's obituary reveals he died while being transported to a German internment camp and was memorialized as a British citizen.

This pool traces the deeper history surrounding the Gondiwindi family and Prosperous Mission across generations. Poppy's early life in the Boys' Home and his first encounter with ancestral time travel reveal the roots of his lifelong cultural mission. Reverend Greenleaf's parallel story shows how Prosperous Mission was founded, survived brutal settler violence, and ultimately collapsed under government pressure to remove Indigenous children. August's childhood memories of her parents' arrest and her move to Massacre Plains connect this colonial past to her own story. The government's forced removal of mission children and the rising anti-German sentiment of the First World War bring Greenleaf's story to its tragic end. The pool closes with Poppy's tender courtship of Elsie and Greenleaf's posthumous obituary, anchoring the full historical arc.

Generations of dispossession and resistance

Poppy receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and begins writing a Wiradjuri dictionary to preserve cultural knowledge for future generations.

Poppy visits the dried-up Murrumby riverbed on the day of his death, reflecting on how quickly things change.

After Jedda's disappearance, August eats roots from the creek to feel connected to the earth, and Poppy baptizes her in the water for protection.

August finds the Bible Poppy gave her after Jedda disappeared, remembers his instructions about reading it as a lie, and throws it away.

August visits Eddie Falstaff at his house and the two share an unexpected kiss before August hurries away.

During Poppy's funeral, August remembers the sexual abuse she and Jedda suffered at the hands of their Uncle Jimmy.

August weeps alone in the attic after the funeral and begins searching through Poppy's belongings for his missing dictionary.

August tells Eddie she cannot leave Prosperous because she fears Jedda might come home and find no one there.

Poppy discovers Jimmy trying to sneak into the girls' room at Christmas and kicks him out of the house.

Jimmy dies in hospital from his infected spear wound, telling Poppy only that Jedda was 'in the water.'

Alena Dimitri secretly hides mining propaganda pamphlets beneath a dessert she brings to the Gondiwindi home.

Poppy's ancestors reveal to him in a vision that Jedda has been reincarnated as a brolga bird.

August decides not to break into the council office and chooses to wait and join the protest with Joey instead.

Rain finally breaks the long drought and August decides to remain permanently at Prosperous Farm.

Poppy's final dictionary entries reaffirm his love for Ngurambang and express his hope that his family is ready to heal.

This pool focuses on the pivotal moments of decision, discovery, and emotional transformation that shape every narrative thread in the novel. Poppy's resolve to write his dictionary before death, and his final solitary walk to the dried-up river, frame his story with quiet determination. August's suppressed grief for Jedda erupts through key confrontations: her memory of eating roots after her sister vanished, her confession to Eddie that she cannot leave Prosperous while hoping Jedda might return, and the shattering memories of Uncle Jimmy's abuse that break through during the funeral. Poppy's own reckoning with Jimmy — finding him at the girls' room and later learning his dying secret — reveals the wound at the heart of the family's grief. The pool resolves with the ancestors' revelation that Jedda lives on as a brolga, rain breaking the long drought, and Poppy's final words of love for his country.