This novel’s characters—20-somethings whom Wood frequently calls “girls”—awaken, drowsy and drugged, on a dilapidated ranch somewhere in the Australian outback. Their rooms are padlocked, they are led about on dog leashes, and they are dressed in a “bizarre olden-day costume”: itchy woolen socks, calico blouses, “ancient underwear,” and stiff leather boots. The women have been imprisoned, though for what, or by whom, they do not know.