It is 1936. As they have done every summer, the Hopkins family - Anne, 8, Duncan, 12, Charlie, 5, and their parents, Derek and Lorna - have rented a house at the Beach. Alone during the week, Lorna is bored. When James Clements, the most handsome man in the Bay, decides to make an amateur cowboy film called 'Lust in the Dust', Lorna plays the whore with the heart of gold. James' sister Isabel is the cameraman, and the local Maoris are enrolled as Indians. The film's title proves disturbingly prophetic. Unaccustomed proximity leads to unaccustomed liaisons, allegiances are questioned and the old certainties suddenly melt away. It is the perfect story to display Barbara Anderson's extraordinary gifts.