Part one / The trunk -- Wirruna -- ''My medium'' -- Newport -- Maxwell Spencer Dupain -- Deepening thought -- The university years -- ''A perfect specimen'' -- A strange dream -- Dupain''s apprenticeship -- ''Darling lass'' -- Great possibilities -- Art and scie nce -- Interior (my room) -- Part two / The Bond Street operation -- Being modern -- Teacup ballet -- Surrealism -- The shell -- Flower studies -- ''Harmonic perception'' -- The sea''s awakening -- ''A break for independence'' -- Max after surfing -- Lucille - - The Max Dupain Studio, 1937-39 -- The Budapest String Quartet -- Stepping into the dark -- Marriage -- Figures in the landscape -- Two girls at Bowral -- War -- Part three / ''The instability of everything'' -- The Dupains -- The ''bust-up'' -- The company of women -- Transition -- Shared problems in photography -- ''Really great years'' -- The Dupain diary -- Divorce -- ''A reasonable sum'' -- ''The boy next door'' -- Part four / Meeting Ross -- Prescience -- Cordiatlity -- The gift -- Absent without leave -- A talisman -- ''We''ll show the world how to live!'' -- ''My sweetheart husband'' -- Versatility -- End of war -- Sturt -- Homecoming -- A new marriage -- Post-war photography -- Part five / A canvas home -- Trying hard -- Spring Forest -- On flying and other pe rsonal matters -- Anecote -- Leaving Ross, one -- Cowra High School -- The Cowra studio -- Jenny Coe -- Loving Ross: the 1960s -- ''The new house'' -- Careworn -- Part six / Striking a chord -- The conversational space -- Wild plum -- ''Unbroken time'' -- Lif e review -- The 1990s -- Moths on the windowpane -- Packing up the studio -- Leaving Ross, two -- A force for change -- White irises -- ''The rifle bird''s song'' -- ''The owl and the pussy-cat'' -- On listening -- Light and shade -- Endnotes -- Acknowledgemen ts -- Index -- Inde of Olive Cotton''s photographic works.