During World War II two Australian soldiers, Digger Kean and Vic Curran, meet in a Japanese war camp. Kean is a stubborn and attentive man who leads a quiet life in a small town near Sydney. Curran is an honest man who, after a childhood of extreme poverty, develops a successful entrepreneurial career. The peculiar friendship that develops between the two men during the war will continue after their release and will affect them for the rest of their lives.