Mick Tranter was born and raised at the edge of the ancient Whipstick Forest, north of Bendigo. When the outbreak of WW2 interrupts his active rural lifestyle, he joins the AIF, and on his last night of leave, he meets and falls in love with a young woman at a Saturday night dance. Love letters and a photo of her go with him to the battlefields of New Guinea and become his talisman. He experiences the harrowing brutality of jungle warfare, only to be posted as missing in action and all communication is lost with his girl and his family. Later, he is found ill and wounded. He survives the war, but returns home in a fragile mental state. Despite the love and care from his mother and his best friend, he is haunted by guilt and shame and enduring sadness over the loss of the girl he loves. He retreats to his beloved Whipstick Forest, but his troubled mind, not relieved by reclusiveness, worsens until he has an epiphany that sets him on the path to atonement.