In the searing heat of an Australian Valentine’s Day, a small party of schoolgirls set out for a local beauty spot, Hanging Rock.
The shocking incident, whether imagined or real, as some still believe, has haunted the national psyche ever since the publication of Joan Lindsay’s novel Picnic at Hanging Rock in 1967.
The author agreed, and the enduring appeal of her story may now lie in the unanswered question it poses.
Only an old man in her novel finally attempts to account for what happened that day at the rock.