13-year-old Sadie Hazzard must build a whole new life for herself when her mother, Ellie, moves her to Boort—a small town in rural Australia where the Hazzards have roots. Sadie isn’t very happy to be uprooted to such a small, remote town. But things get interesting when, one day, she stumbles upon a dry lakebed located on the property of a wealthy local family named the Mortlocks. At the lakebed, she finds a mysterious circle of stones. It is there that the black crows, which are ubiquitous in the town’s landscape, begin speaking to her, telling her that the stone circle is “Crow’s place,” a special place full of stories.
Things get even stranger when Sadie, visiting the stone circle again one day, has a fainting fit and finds herself in the year 1933, living in her great-aunt’s body (who was named Sarah Louise but was also nicknamed Sadie). There, she meets her own great-grandfather Clarry Hazzard and her great-grandmother Jean Hazzard, as well Jimmy Raven and Gerald Mortlock—two friends of her great-grandfather’s. At the time of Sadie’s time travel to the past, Jimmy Raven and Gerald Mortlock are in a serious conflict over the dam that Gerald Mortlock intends to build on the family’s large property of Invergarry in Boort. Jimmy Raven, an Aboriginal man who works for Gerald Mortlock and who served with him and Clarry Hazzard in World War I, wants to stop Mortlock from building the dam, as it will flood an ancient sacred site—the site of the stone circles—which is extremely important to his own Aboriginal people.
On the various other occasions that Sadie is whisked back to the year 1933, she witnesses the escalating conflict between Jimmy Raven and Gerald Mortlock. The conflict ends tragically when Mortlock murders Jimmy Raven, and then seeks help from Clarry Hazzard to cover up the crime. Clarry Hazzard, who is indebted to Mortlock because of a large financial loan he had taken from him, not only helps Mortlock cover up the murder, but involves his daughter Sarah Louise (or Sadie) cover up the crime.
In the present, the crows push Sadie to finish the “story” of Jimmy Raven, whose body, as well as the sacred Aboriginal objects he had on his person when he died, were lost after his murder. She also begins to rethink her liking for Lachie Mortlock, great-grandson of Gerald Mortlock and son of Craig Mortlock, a member of the Mortlock clan that owns the property of Invergarry on which the sacred circle of stone sits. For one thing, Lachie reveals the secret location of the stone circles—which Sadie had shared with him—with his father, even though Sadie had told him not to. Furthermore, like many of the town’s white residents, he demonstrates prejudice towards the town’s Aboriginal people, treating Walter, an Aboriginal boy whom Sadie befriends, and who is the nephew of David, her mother’s boyfriend, with contempt.
As Sadie overcomes her liking for Lachie, she grows closer to Walter, who, along with his uncle David, happens to be a descendant of Jimmy Raven. It is Walter to whom Sadie confides the fact that the crows are speaking to her, and it is with Walter’s help that she searches for and finds the sacred objects—Jimmy Raven’s “special things”—that went missing after his death. Furthermore, it is Walter who introduces Sadie to his Auntie Lily, an old woman who is Jimmy Raven’s niece, and who is versed in the Aboriginal cultural heritage. Her deep knowledge of the culture helps Sadie and Walter in their search for Jimmy’s things.
Sadie and Walter’s search for Jimmy Raven’s things risks reigniting the cycle of violence that had begun with Gerald Mortlock’s murder of Jimmy Raven. The Mortlocks are not happy to have Sadie and Walter snooping around their property, and, when Lachie Mortlock catches the two in the Mortlock house one day after they break in to search of Jimmy’s “special things,” the confrontation ends in violence at the stone circle. Lachie is seriously wounded. However, Sadie and Walter, rather than leaving Lachie to die, seek help for him.
By time traveling to the past, Sadie manages to locate Jimmy’s lost “special things,” and gives them to Auntie Lily for safekeeping. Furthermore, a crow shows her and Walter the place on the dry lakebed where Jimmy Raven’s body has been secretly buried. As Sadie and Walter restore his grave by putting up a grave marker, Lachie Mortlock appears. He expresses his gratitude to Sadie and Walter for saving his life when he was injured. Together, the three of them begin restoring the graveyard, which also contains the graves of members of the Mortlock family. The relationship between the youngest generation of Hazzards, Mortlocks, and Jimmy Raven’s descendants is on the brink of transformation: the three teenagers are on their way to becoming friends.
