Beginning on the shores of Gallipoli, at break of day during the invasion of the peninsula by Australian forces in the first world war this film then shifts to the quiet country town of Tetlow in 1920.
Where a restless young war veteran Tom Cooper (Andrew McFarlane) is distracted from rabbiting, his very pregnant wife and his memories when he meets Alice Hughes (Sara Kestelman), an artist with Bohemian ways.
When Alice's sophisticated wine-drinking city friends turn up and condescendingly observe a rural cricket match, Tom begins to understand that Alice sees the world differently, and he returns to his country lifestyle, sadder but perhaps also a little wiser, or at least more aware of himself and the larger world.
A Cinema Papers production survey, June–July 1976 listed the budget as $617,000, but in the next Sept-Oct 1976 edition, apologised to the producers of the film for typographical errors, and reported the budget as $507,000 [4] Australian distributor: Greater Union Distributors Australian release: world premiere Bercy Cinema Melbourne 31 December 1976; on television, Nine network, 13 July 1980.
[1][4] The isolated stone Cottage, which serves as the bush hideaway for the main female character and artist, "Alice", is a few kilometres out of town.
Ernest was a carpenter and farmer but he also served in the Boer War in the 2nd Mount Rifles and travelled widely with and without the family.
The film received some good reviews and was popular in Melbourne but performed poorly in Sydney and failed to recoup its budget.