Frieda, her mother and father arrive in Australia to look for a better life. Her father is to open a pharmacy with Frieda's uncle and they will live over the shop. But as the First World War takes hold, the family is devastated by the internment of Papi and Onkel Heinz as enemy aliens, and Frieda has her own battles to fight on the streets with local children. But others are kind and Frieda keeps her grandmother's advice to stay strong in the face of all these trials and eventually triumphs.