In colonial Australia, refined Elizabeth Harrington, daughter of the judge advocate and engaged to Captain McEwan, decides to help female convicts who are living in appalling conditions.

The film was an original idea of Cowan's: I was living in the bush, in Berowra Waters, and it was so powerful.

And how the sort of excesses of radical feminism, when it began, were seen as ugly - ranting and raving and being abusive and so on.

[4]Cowan wrote the screenplay with producer John Wiley and playwright Dorothy Hewett.

[1] Shooting was a turbulent experience, in part because everyone was living together on location and there were fierce arguments between Cowan and the cast over the direction the film was taking.