It was produced in South Africa, West Germany, and the United Kingdom.

[1][2] A young and impoverished Barney Barnato emigrated from England to South Africa in 1870.

There he first works at a circus and falls in love with and later marries Fanny.

When Barnato opposes Rhodes (now Prime Minister of the Cape Colony) in his efforts to start a war with the Boer Republics Barnato becomes the victim of a plot involving one of his nephews.

The series ends with Barnato being thrown overboard a cruise ship and his death being portrayed to the public as a suicide.