1864. After three years of service in the Russian navy and a gruelling expedition to Greenland, Captain Frederik Ziege of the Royal Danish Navy is enjoying a season on the Riviera with his mother, sister and two marriageable nieces. There he meets Emmeline Leslie, the young Australian widow of a bush pioneer. The differences between their complex histories enrich the ensuing romance, but frustrate their search for a home. The Bequest is a novel about identity and belonging, about the place of history and memory in uprooted lives and, at its heart it is the story of a passionate love affair.