Dirt Music

Georgie recalls her childhood, especially her relationship with her mother. She sees herself as the black sheep, her mother impossible to please. Georgie is the oldest of four girls and is jealous of her sisters for their beauty. Her father left and married someone Georgie’s age—a slap in the face to the family.

She goes home to learn her mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage and was alone on the floor for 18 hours before being found. She cries with her sisters, who are all in designer clothing with fancy cars parked out front. These are blunt reminders of her aristocratic upbringing. While talking to her estranged father, she strips and falls into the swimming pool, lying on the bottom so she cannot hear her family speaking.

As a nurse, Georgie has cleaned a corpse immediately after death and feels the process was a holy and reverent one. She wishes she could have cleaned her mother’s body. She jumps naked in the pool the next day and is found by her sister, Ann, and her two young kids, who laugh at Georgie’s nudity.

At the funeral, Jim and his sons arrive in suits and sit beside Georgie. Jim drives her back to her mom’s place and asks to talk about the shamateur, though Georgie says she is not ready, and Jim and the boys leave. Ann reveals that their mother might have left Georgie the house and asks for the money. Georgie says she’s leaving in the morning. She has not had a drink in a day.

Georgie packs up and leaves her mother’s home, stopping at the yacht club to look at the boats. She once sailed from Australia to Indonesia and spent countless hours on the sea. She visits the university and feels a sense of failure at becoming a nurse rather than a doctor like her father wanted. She leaves Perth feeling like she should never return and drives to Lu’s farmhouse with the idea that she can make a life with him. When she arrives, he’s gone. The house has been boarded up and abandoned.

At Jim’s, they fight and in a fit of rage, Jim says it wasn’t him that killed the dog and shot up the truck. He says he isn’t happy about it, and he’s trying to be civilized. It is unclear if Jim is telling the truth.

Georgie stays sober, stays at Jim’s, and resumes her life as a fisherman’s wife. She stays in the guest room and Jim is courteous but distant. She grows angry at Lu for abandoning her and realizes Jim was only fond of her, never truly in love. Her sister Jude is growing frantic in her emails. Finally, Jude calls to say that mother left everything to her faithless husband.

Beaver reveals his positive opinion of Georgie, and he wishes he could help her. He wishes he could explain Buckridge, White Point, and even himself. He knows Buckridge is watching him, though, and he knows she’ll be gone soon enough.

Georgie wakes up after a dream of Mrs. Jubail, a patient in her care in Saudi Arabia who had an aggressive cancer on her face. She attempted to care for the woman but could not hide her disgust. As a result, her magic touch—her calling to be a caregiver—died. Georgie is haunted by the woman and her career loss.

Georgie remains in her domestic role. Soon, things in the Buckridge household stabilize. At her request, Beaver has found her a car. Georgie goes to get it and Beaver reveals that it was a local named Shover McDougall who shot Lu’s dog and car.

That evening, a boat anchors in the lagoon and she swims out to see the frazzled look on the woman’s face. Georgie, too, nearly died in the passage three years prior and knows that she’s run out of luck for life, just like the stranger on deck.

Georgie’s sister Jude shows up unannounced at Jim’s house and cries about her marriage. She leaves after taking valium, and Georgie realizes they are both just like their mother. She recalls her adventures as a young woman: driving down the coast of the US, sailing with her boyfriend, and her time in Saudi Arabia. She lingers on the memory of finding the island in Coronation Gulf.

Georgie and Jim rekindle their relationship on Christmas Eve, and Georgie moves into the bedroom again. Beaver disappears and returns with a Vietnamese wife named Lois, whom the townsfolk refer to as “Mail Order.” Georgie gets a letter that contains nothing but red dirt from the north of Australia. She eats the dirt and throws away the envelope.

Part 3 is entirely from the perspective of Luther “Lu” Fox as he hitchhikes out of White Point heading north. He sleeps on the dirt at night, and he feels vacant and empty.

Lu continues his hitchhiking adventure north, encountering Rusty, a peg-legged hippie, in a van full of pot and prescription drugs. At camp that night, Lu tells Rusty he is headed for Wittenoom, the mining town where his father got mesothelioma from working in asbestos removal. A painful death and a cover-up followed. Rusty drugs him, and Lu sits in a stupor. Rusty says he’s headed north to find the man who injured him and exact revenge. While Lu seeks closure and healing, Rusty is a juxtaposition in his rage and desire for revenge.

Three young people stop by their campfire, and Rusty fights with them, though Lu is under the influence of substances and cannot stand up. He does not know what is happening.

In the morning, Lu finds the other car and two of the young people gone, having left one young woman behind. Lu doesn’t know what happened and doesn’t ask. He drives Rusty and Nora, the left-behind girl, to Wittenoom.

Minutes after arriving Lu wants to leave, and he turns the car around as Rusty belittles him and Nora looks on with pity. They drive on, and Nora says she is 16 and headed to Perth. Lu gives her money for a bus back the other way as Rusty remains dosed with morphine in the back of the van. Nora does not leave, so Lu leaves them at the next gas station and walks on.

Lu meets Horrie and Bess by a campfire and joins them. He picked up meat at the last stop and offers to grill and share it. Bess and Lu talk about literature and poetry by the fire. In the morning, Horrie tells Lu that Bess is dying from cancer but wants to go out fighting. His only ambition now is to give her drama and excitement on the way out. He shares how Bess has opened him up to the music and poetry of life. Riding with them, he recalls his mother and per positive nature. Bess is in pain, the car breaks down, and Horrie asks Lu to stay to talk literature and poetry with his dying wife. However, Lu cannot stand the music on the tape deck and the pain of the poetry, and he plans to flee as soon as he can.