Georgie, one of two protagonists in Dirt Music, is a former oncology nurse who spends her days as a caretaker to a home for her estranged spouse, Jim, and her two stepsons, Josh and Brad. After one of the sons calls her “stepmother,” the magic that held the family together breaks, and Georgie withdraws to insomnia and alcohol misuse, spending her nights online in a virtual world where she can be anyone. She longs to leave but feels frozen with indecision. Disenchanted with her life, she becomes captivated by a shamateur—a forbidden relationship for the wife of the most respected fisherman in the small fishing town.

Georgie was born into a family of wealth, her father a barrister, and her mother taking care of the home in Perth. In a desire to distance herself from her aristocratic upbringing, she becomes a nurse, travels the world, and explores the seas, ultimately landing in White Point to escape a lover she’d come to despise. Her sisters are beautiful women with sports cars, clad in designer clothing. However, they are all deeply unhappy, stuck in loveless marriages, and coping with financial woes and depression. This is what Georgie has strived to avoid, but she finds herself just like her sisters and her mother, stuck with Jim and his loveless sons.