1939. Australia is about to go to war, but in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Richmond, it is business, your own and everyone else's, as usual. And fifteen-year-old Kip Westaway, failed scholar and proud new owner of a shilling, is living the most important day of his life. Over the seventy years the nine members of the Westaway clan will each experience their own momentous, transformative day. For Kip, for his adored sister Connie and for all the people they love, these nine days will show them exactly who they are.