May Callaghan is in her last year of school in the late 1960s. She lives on a farm with her parents. May’s boyfriend, Sam, leaves for Melbourne, where he lives in an inner-city share house.

Sam has registered for the National Service ballot, and he faces the prospect of being drafted to fight in Vietnam. His housemates oppose the war, and when he receives notice to join up, they arrange for him to go into hiding in the Blue Mountains of NSW. But Sam soon decides he doesn’t want to hide. He never felt comfortable with his housemates’ support for the Draft Resisters Union and instead he joins the army and starts training.

When May’s parents find out that she is pregnant, she resists their plan for her to go to an unwed mothers’ home in Adelaide, instead bolting for Melbourne and the share house.

Most of the characters are one-dimensional, and the minutiae of small-town life obscure the human drama that should be centre stage. The plot plods on, as May becomes involved in anti-war activities, her wedding plans with Sam are disrupted when he is sent to Vietnam ahead of schedule, and she receives the brutal 1960s hospital treatment of unwed mothers.

This first novel has good bones for its plot. It’s just a pity they are not fleshed out to their full potential.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville