[1][2] At the end of World War II, the promise of jobs and a chance to start a new life induced tens of thousands of young Italians to join the post-war immigration to Australia.

Unable to decide how to resolve this situation, Amedeo tells Carmela that driving to Giuseppe's home in Broken Hill would take three days, but as the trip starts, they are seen riding not southwest of Brisbane, but thousands of kilometers off-course in the city of Cairns, a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland's tropical far north.

The brightly colored lush greenery provides a picturesque background for an eventful multi-day journey down the coast of eastern Australia, with one of the stops at Barrier Reef's Dunk Island,[4] a popular tourist vacation spot, which provides the opportunity for the rental of a rowboat and, as Amedeo rows, Carmela strips to her underwear and dives into the warm water, revealing her skill as an expert swimmer, speedily maneuvering amidst brilliantly colored fish and corals, while Amedeo sits in the boat, peering downward with concern.

As the long trip to Broken Hill continues, they become better acquainted and she learns of his hardships as an immigrant and also finds out, since it happens in front of her, that, due to a years-earlier bout of malaria, he is subject to occasional epileptic-like convulsions which leave him unable to function for a few hours.

After a few pleasantries, Giuseppe who, as it turns out, is himself a pimp, leaves after driving Carmela to the back entrance of what he describes as her new apartment, but which quickly reveals itself as a prostitute's walk-up house situated in the city's red light district amidst numerous other such dwellings, each with its own resident "working girl" sitting on the porch.

Amedeo finds out where Giuseppe has taken Carmela, goes to the red light neighborhood and approaches her porch, hoping to offer an explanation, but she goes inside to get her switchblade and attacks him, inflicting a stab wound in his shoulder.

Eventually, Carmela and Amedeo, with his arm in a sling, are on a train, as he is still trying to convince her of his honorable intentions by offering to pay for her trip back to Italy but she begins to cry that she was a prostitute there and, upon returning, would be beaten by her pimp.