Bony, a great-great-grandson of legendary part-Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte. Albert Harris had been a teenager when he knew Napolean; decades later, as a tribal elder, he had tracked and rescued Napoleon's descendant from the desert, after Bony's parents had tragically perished. 'Uncle' Albert taught the young white boy the ways of the desert. Now in 1990, Albert stands beside the 22-year-old Bony as he is inducted into the Northern Police Force. Bony is sent to Woongala. His first case concerns Angela Hemming, the young American wife of the district's most influential landowner. She claims that a Ned Bowen had attempted to rape her, but that she hadn't pressed charges on the condition he left town. Non of this rings true to Bony and he begins to investigate.