Human Toll commences with a little girl, variously Lovey, Ursie and Ursula, already motherless, coming to terms with the death of her father. She is on a remote, semi arid sheep property in the care of her father's mate Boshy and an Aboriginal couple Nungi and Queeby. Boshy wishes to continue as the girl's guardian but their nearest neighbour yes, "a day's ride away" Cameron and his daughter Margaret come and take her (and all the father's papers).
Barbara Janet Baynton (née Lawrence; 4 June 1857 28 May 1929) was an Australian writer known primarily for her short stories about life in the bush.