Harry Larsen's boyhood in post-war Sydney is marred by the death of his Danish father. With the loss of their breadwinner, Harry and his mother move to a new life in the country in New South Wales. He takes with them an old biscuit tin containing letters and items left by his father. The letters, in a language he cannot understand, and the words 'For redder' levelled in anger at his father, become posers that the Harry seeks to solve. The adult Harry learns of his mother's death while employed as an engineer on a copper mine on the island of Bouganville, a mine that is increasingly opposed by the islanders. Returning to Australia for his mother's funeral he decides to give up his life as an engineer and go to Denmark to find the truth of his father's wartime activities; to his resistance to the German occupation of his country. For Harry it is a journey of discovery to find the family that he has not known and, ultimately, to love.
"A debut novel of a boy raised in Sydney to the adult who seeks to find the truth of his father's participation in resistance to German occupied Denmark."