Have you ever wondered how your life might turn out if you were to follow your heart at every junction and simply do whatever feels right, without regard for the outcome? If you dare, your journey might not always be comfortable, and it probably won't take you where you expect, but it's sure to be interesting and fulfilling. And hopefully it won't be quite as dramatic as David Macfarlane's rollercoaster. But his entertaining, occasionally heart-wrenching, and often enlightening story may inspire you to follow at least some of your dreams. You'll discover that with the right attitude, a lot of persistence, and a bit of luck, everything always turns out well in the end. As a young man, David tried to live his life by Zorba the Greek's creed 'to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition'. But what begins as a restless and occasionally reckless desire for freedom and adventure gradually morphs into a search for paradise. From suburban Sydney in the mid-seventies, across Australia, to Europe, North America, and a remote Fijian village, David experiences a dozen varieties of paradise and learns about life from a myriad cast of characters. After returning to Sydney many years later and completing a degree in architecture he finally decides to sell everything he owns, move to a deserted island on the Great Barrier Reef, and create his own version of paradise.

David faces trials he never could have imagined, ponders the environmental challenges facing humanity, and discovers the things we can all do to preserve our Earthly paradise. And along the way, against all likelihood, he inadvertently learns the secret to success, for any endeavour, no matter how apparently impossible.