Unaccountable Hours is a collection of three novellas that follow the fortunes of a maker of musical instruments, the ethical dilemma of a biologist and birdwatcher, and the romantic friendship between a young man and an aged woman - all firmly set in and defined by the Australian landscape. In The Luthier, musician Alton Freeman devotes his life to crafting a violin that will reproduce the perfect sound of Bach's Partitas and Sonatas, as played by his idol, musician Monica Erica Grenbaum. Ethical Man follows the biologist and birdwatcher Bartholomew Milner, who lives stringently according to his 'Milner's Ethic', and is put to the ultimate ethical test whilst on a research expedition in the Australian outback. Like Water tells the story of an unlikely friendship and subsequent romance that develops between two kindred spirits, Matthew and Beatrice - two soulmates born generations apart.
