The Last Rose is the life story of Elsie May Cooley who lived in suburban Mt. Hawthorn in Western Australia for 61 years. During the 1920s, the suburb was relatively undeveloped, surrounded with tracts of virgin bushland, tall timber and wildflowers in the spring. Ellesmere Street was simply planks laid over a sandy track along which livestock often sauntered.

Elsie took great interest in the arts in all its forms and a selection of her poetry and memoir is also included. Her biography was written by her daughter, award-winning author Lois D. Cooley.