1853 Mogo Creek, NSW Della Atterton, bereft at the loss of her parents, is holed up in the place she loves best: the beautiful Hawkesbury in New South Wales. Della has no wish to return to Sydney. But the unexpected arrival of Captain Stefan von Richter on a quest to retrieve what could be Australia's first opal precipitates Della’s return to Sydney and her Curio Shop of Wonders where she discovers her enigmatic aunt, Cordelia, is selling more than curiosities to collectors. Strange things are afoot and Della, a fly in a spider's web, is caught up in events with unimaginable consequences … 1919 Sydney, NSW When London teashop waitress Fleur Richards inherits land in Australia from her husband, Hugh, killed in the war, she wants nothing to do with it. After all, accepting it will mean Hugh really is dead. But Hugh's lawyer is insistent, and so she finds herself ensconced in the Berkeley Hotel on Bent St, Sydney, the reluctant owner of a Hawkesbury property and an old curio shop, now desolate and boarded up. As the real story of her inheritance unfolds, Fleur and damaged returned soldier Kip are drawn deep into the past by a thread that unravels a mystery surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress ... a green that is the colour of envy, the colour buried deep within an opal, the colour of poison …