Susan Gibson was seen as the brightest girl in the class while she was at school in New Zealand, but she drops out of university to get married a year short of graduation, then moves to Australia with her husband Alex shortly afterwards. Before long she's discovered that her dream of life in Melbourne with Alex and their daughter Sarah has collapsed. Alex travels to Queensland for a few days - as part of his job, he says - then writes to tell his wife he won't be coming back. Susan finds herself saddled with a mortgage she can't pay, her world apparently in ruins. She hasn't any idea how to resolve this crisis, but she's determined to salvage what she can...