A leader of the Young Ireland rebellion of 1948, Robert Devereux is an Irish gentleman who is prepared to hazard a life of privilege in the fight for his country's freedom.

Transported to Van Diemen's Land as a political prisoner, he enters a life that greatly changes him, falling in love with a young Irish convict woman.

Through Kathleen O'Rahilly he comes to know the people he's long romanticised; but his cause, and the life he has lost, will not let him go.