The first part of a trilogy that dramatises the recurring 'new chum' theme in Australian storytelling and also touches on racism, wartime propaganda, and the mateship and community that exists in a small town dependent on one industry to survive. The narrative begins in the late thirties, with the arrival of a young Englishman in the Queensland sugar cane town of Silkwood. When he is not accepted by the Australian cane cutters, the Italian workers take him under their wing. As the story progresses, he has several love affairs, goes to war, and eventually returns to the canefields.
