Harry Harrigan is a young Australian accountant who's been forced to return to his rural hometown by his bullying father who threatens harm to Harry's mother unless he returns to work for him. Knowing that his father has full control, Harry complies and makes the best of his new job and life in Monaldo. There, he falls in love with a beautiful young woman from a neighbouring town.

Eventually he has the inevitable clash with his father and leaves, taking his mother with him.

In Brisbane, he's quickly employed by a big American forensic accounting firm and is trained as an investigator. He leaves on assignment overseas, perhaps, he's warned, never to return to Australia and he has a huge success rate. He's had to leave Sara behind until the future is clear.

After two years on the move he's assigned to the company's biggest case—embezzlement from a big European conglomerate—a case with which previous investigators have had no success. Harry begins to get results and, to gain some relaxation, goes for a recreational flight one Sunday, near Dover. Soon after taking off, his plane's engine stops and he recalls rumours of an attempt on his life. He'd ignored them until now, as he drifts silently over Dover, trying to get the plane safely down and thinking of Sara...