When Sydney reporter Alan Derwent is banished to the Northern Territory as punishment for writing a rude limerick about his boss's wife, the last thing he expects to tumble across is a real story. Arriving in the tiny town of Borroloola in 1935, he falls in with rough and ready Territorian Darcy Malone, and encounters the glamorous English aviators, Phillip and Ursula Barraclough, who appear to have a secret.
At a legendary waterhole in the middle of the desert the interests of the Barracloughs and Alan coincide. Living in this remote place is an Englishman caught between two worlds, a man who has chosen to live as an Aborigine and is determined to resist those who have come to rescue him. Alan's instincts as a reporter are compromised when Ursula seduces him into keeping the story secret. As two irreconcilable cultures collide, it becomes clear that there is more than one pawn in the game.
