A moment's foolish mistake costs sixteen-year-old Nora her freedom and her family. Sentenced to transportation she has to grow up fast to survive prison, the long journey and then life as an assigned servant in Van Diemen's Land of the 1820s. She is sustained by real friendships with other prisoners, Sarah and Helen. Can anyone of them overcome the pitfalls of convict life to become pioneering settlers of modern-day Tasmania? This is a story of love and friendship amidst the trials of 19th-century Australian colonial life.