The saga of the eponymous hero Brendan Kinneen is seen against a background of stirring historical events, peopled by actual historic persons playing their part in those earliest days of european settlement in what is now Australia.

Although himself fictional, Kinneen stands as a metaphor for the countless Irish patriots sentenced to penal servitude for their 1798 rising against British domination. ironically, it was the eventual blending of these two warring peoples which has contributed to the Australian national consciousness and character.