[5][6] A critic from The Age, reviewing the January production, said Afford was "one of the few playwrights in Australia who have any idea of what drama ought to be" and the play "had possibilities rather offset by too much dissertation on sugar, farming and the dragging in of taipans and pythons.
"[7] A critic from the same paper listened to another production of the play in May and liked it more saying "There is undoubtedly much good writing in it and a sense of theatre, which is almost completely lacking in most of our aspiring playwrights.
[10] According to ABC Weekly "Afford's drama is played against a background of the prosperous sugarcane belt between Mackay and Cairns, in Northern Queensland.
David Noble, son of a wealthy Australian cane farmer, returns from abroad bringing with him his English wife, Vinnie.
David has told Vinnie of the comfort and luxury of his father’s creeper-covered home set in the wide canefields, but from the moment Vinnie sets foot in the house and encounters Ann Berriman, the capable, matter-of-fact daughter of the neighbouring farm, she realises the bitter, latent antagonism which permeates the old house.