There is a house, surrounded by swamp and a deep, dark lowland rainforest, in tropical Australia. Galmara is its name, Galmara the poet, the singer of songs.

Galmara fears for its future. It was built to shelter humans but its open doors and windows mean that nature also uses it as refuge.

Originally built at the turn of the century of Red Cedar, the house has seen many tenants. For the past thirty years Margaret Thorsborne has lived beneath its roof.

Honeyeaters bathe in its garden and roost on its ornaments. Native rodents—Melomys and the Giant White-tailed Rat—scuttle about its floorboards and create mischief in its cupboards. Giant spiders slouch around its wooden stumps (piles) and use its thoroughfares to rig their webs.

Nature has begun to have more than just an irritating effect on the house.

The house believes nature could be its nemesis.

Galmara revisits its past in an attempt to shed some light on recent events, especially the return of a mysterious sound. It heard the sound once, long ago, at the time it was abandoned by its last human tenants.

Houses are human constructs; they have no seeds, no young. They cannot just ‘up stumps’ and walk away into a more suitable lifestyle. They must face their fate head on.

How will Galmara resolve its dilemma? Does the answer lie in the discovery of the source of the sound, or will that discovery lead to more serious revelations?