"Seven years old and ever hopeful, Millie Bird wears red gumboots to match her curly hair. Grieving the death of her husband, Millie's mother leaves her in a local store and never returns. Agatha Pantha, eighty-two, has not left her house in seven years. Karl the Touch Typist, who is eighty-seven and types into the air as he speaks, has escaped from his nursing home. Brought together by fate, these three set out across Western Australia to find Millie's mother"--From the publisher's web site.