So it is for Kitty Morland, a young woman in London in 1878. Cheated of her birthright and condemned to a soul-destroying existence, Kitty yields to temptation one fateful day and commits a desperate, criminal act. Realisation of its possible terrifying consequences forces her to flee to the other side of the world, to Australia, taking her widowed mother, Bella, with her. Fearful that her past will catch up with her she marries William, an English aristocrat, and moves from Sydney to in Bulahdelah, a remote logging area in the mid north of New South Wales - a place of red-cedar forests, wild rivers, and the isolation of a pioneer village. Kitty needs all her courage and determination to survive a loveless marriage, dominated by a husband with a dark side to his character. She realises all too late that the passion she feels for Rufe Cavanagh, a charismatic and entrepreneurial colonial, is reciprocated Kitty finally has a chance for love and happiness but, torn between love and duty, she must make a difficult decision that will affect the lives of others.