Tragedy strikes Rosie Taylor when her ill mother dies aboard the clipper ship transporting her and her family from England to Australia. Not too long after, her father becomes engaged to a passenger on board, a woman to whom Rosie takes a disliking. But growing up in Victoria, amongst some of the passengers who came over on the boat, isn't so bad, especially after she meets a young boy named Rory. Years later when her father leaves town, Rosie takes different jobs to make ends meet. Things start looking up when a local river skipper asks for her hand in marriage, but as she's sailing down the river with him she runs into her childhood friend, Rory, and emotions that weren't there before come to the surface.