Owls Do Cry is one of the classics of New Zealand literature, and has remained in print continuously for fifty years. Set in provincial, pre-1940 New Zealand, this novel explores the Withers family and in particular Daphne. When one of Daphne's sisters, Francie, dies at the rubbish dump where the children search for treasure, a crisis is provoked which leads Daphne to a mental asylum where she is given shock treatment. Owls Do Cry forms a loose trilogy with two subsequent novels, Faces in the Water and The Edge of the Alphabet.