Penny's returned home to Santa Barbara to deal with her grandfather who's being moved into a retirement home by his cruel second wife. Her grandmother, meanwhile, has been found in possession of a sinister sounding weapon called 'the scintilltor' and something even worse in her woodshed. Penny's parents have been missing in the outback for many years now, and so Penny must deal with this spiralling family crisis alone. Enter 'The Dog of The North'. 'The Dog of the North' is a borrowed van, replete with yellow gingham curtains, wood panelling, a futon, a pinata, clunky breaks and difficult steering. It's also Penny's getaway car from a failed marriage, a family in crisis and an uncertain future. This darkly, dryly comic novel follows Penny as she sets out in The Dog to find a way through the curveballs life has thrown at her and in doing so, find a way back to herself.