Resumen
It is 1841. In the remote penal colony of Van Diemens Land, a barefoot aboriginal girl sits for a portrait in a red silk dress. She is Mathinna, the adopted daughter of the islands governor, Sir John Franklin and the subject of a grand experiment in civilization one that will determine whether science, Christianity, and reason can be imposed on savagery, impulse, and desire. Years later, somewhere in the Arctic, Franklin has disappeared with his crew on an expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage.<
