Oblivia Ethelyne was given her name by an old woman who found her deep in the bowels of a gum tree, the victim of a brutal assault by wayward local youths. These are the years leading up to Australia’s third centenary, and the woman who finds her, Bella Donna of the Champions, is a refugee from climate change wars that devastated her country in the northern hemisphere. Bella Donna takes Oblivia to live with her on an old warship in a polluted dry swamp, and there she fills Oblivia’s head with story upon story of swans. When Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, invades the swamp with the promise of salvation, Oblivia agrees to marry him, becoming First Lady, a role that has her confined to a tower in a flooded and lawless southern city.