"Ingi Friedlander, a young art administrator, sets off from Cape Town into the majestic, stony plains of the Karoo to acquire a sculpture, destined for South Africa's new Houses of Parliament. But when she reaches the small, dusty town of Yearsonend, she finds the artist, Jonty Jack, refuses to sell. He claims the sculpture was not his creation, but sprang miraculously from the ground overnight." "Ingi decides to stay and try to win Jonty Jack's trust, though soon realises that the locals suspect she's on a different trail - that of the legendary wagon of gold, brought in by exhausted Boer War veterans. Intrigued, she starts to probe the tight-lipped community. As the stories of doomed love, widening racial divides, scandal and murderous hatred whirl like dust devils, she discovers the tangled web that connects the townspeople of all colours and creeds, and keeps them silent about the secrets of the past. Most silent of them all is Mario Salviati: stonemason, Italian prisoner of war, deaf, now blind - and dumb."--BOOK JACKET.