Written by Doris Pilkington, the daughter of the oldest girl, Molly, the story traces the traumatic uprooting of the three sisters from their community in Northwestern Australia. Following a government edict in 1931, black children and children of mixed marriages were gathered up and brought to settlements where they were to be disciplined to abandon their aboriginal heritage, and taught to be culturally white. The three sisters, Molly, Gracie and Daisy quickly planned an escape from the Moore River Native Settlement with its harsh life of padlocks, barred windows, hard cold beds and horrible food. Solitary confinement was doled out as regular punishment and they were forbidden to speak their own language. The girls headed for the nearby rabbit-proof fence that stretches over 1000 miles through the desert toward their home. Their journey lasted over a month, and they survived on everything from emus to feral cats, while narrowly avoiding the police, professional trackers, and hostile white settlers. Their story is a truly moving tale of defiance and resilience.