Fleeing Kuala Lumpur after the Japanese capture Penang, young Zeny Havilland arrives in Darwin shortly before Christmas 1941. Uprooted and knowing no one, she finds work as a reporter on the Northern Standard and a home with Olive, a gentle Quaker who takes in waifs and strays. Robert, a troubled young man damaged by war, lives in a shed in the garden.
The Japanese army's advance into the Pacific seems unstoppable and Australia a probable target. Amid the growing tensions in a frontier town unprepared for Japanese attack, Zeny and Robert fall in love and face with courage not only the threat of invasion but their fear that Robert's personal demons will destroy their future together.