Beleura, the house and garden on the Mornington Peninsula on the southern shore of Port Phillip Bay, is an estate left to the people of Victoria by John ‘Jack’ Morton Tallis (1911–1996), the youngest son of Sir George Tallis of J C Williamson theatres fame... Here was a mystery: how did John Tallis know Klytie Pate and why did he buy her studio pottery? It is a complicated tale and involves many players. The five found objects led to a much greater story that deserved to be told: how Klytie Pate and John Tallis, two very young, impressionable people, were brought together through an unlikely shipboard friendship and a clash with the worlds of Christian and Napier Waller, two sophisticated artists, storytellers and educators.