"Penny Rush's marriage is over, and she's quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally unbalanced father provokes her; her grandmother keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. Enter the Dog of the North: a borrowed van, replete with yellow gingham curtains, wood paneling, and stiff brakes. It is Penny's getaway car from a life in crisis and an uncertain future. In setting out in the Dog, will she find a way back to herself?" -- Adapted from publisher info and jacket.