Kate Reed and her brother, Pete, had been raised in their family homestead, Darnleigh, in Australia but now they are being forced to sell. After their mother was killed in a plane crash, their father had drunk himself to death leaving them heavily in debt. Matt Thornton, their neighbour on Grey Gums, offers to buy the property, but Kate deeply resents him because he had been the pilot of the plane in which their mother died. But, finally, when Kate returns home, she is forced to confront six years of resentment and her real feelings about Matt.