Coming together for a writing workshop with bestselling author Jan Goldstein, four strangers converge upon a luxury forest retreat. But along with their notepads and laptops, each of the participants has brought some emotional baggage. Beth is a solo parent and busy career woman haunted by a tragic car accident. Simone, the youngest at 26, is a successful Instagram star but she's hiding behind a façade. Jamie is the only man. He's a handsome personal trainer - but he looks out of place with a pen in his hand. Finally, Alice is a wife and mum recovering from post-natal depression.

Schoolteacher Natalie has always been a city girl. When Nat takes up a posting at a tiny school in remote Western Australia, it proves quite the culture shock. But soon Natalie is welcomed by the inquisitive locals - particularly young student Billy and his intriguing single father, Drew. As Nat's school comes under threat of closure and Billy's estranged mother turns up out of the blue, Nat finds herself fighting for the township and battling with her heart.

Kim is a creative woman of the land, renowned in her community. But deep down she's lonely. She's already watched the man she loves falls for someone else, and her dream of starting a family feels like it's slipping through her fingers. Enter Charlie McNamara, visiting Lake Grace on business, intriguing Kim with his mysterious past....

As she approaches thirty, dedicated nurse Ellie Sutton's life is how she wants it—well, almost. Her younger sister, Carrie, seems to have it all sorted though: a successful hair business, a devoted new boyfriend and a rosy future together. Even Ellie's brother, Bodhi, is settled with his petite, super-chill chef girlfriend, Ingrid. So why does Ellie suddenly give up her career and family for the red dust and toil of an outback cattle station? She's never run from anything before—it's new territory in more ways than one.

Emma, a nurse and busy mother of three, has always dreamed of having a sister. Michelle, at 46, wonders if it's too late to fall in love and find her birth parents. Sarah, career woman and perfectionist homemaker, struggles to keep up with the Joneses. Bill, 72, feels left behind after the death of his adored wife. Adam can't stop thinking about the father he never had. These five very different people are all connected but separated by secrets from the past.

Widowed matriarch Maggie remembers a time when the Italian prisoners of war came to work on their land, changing her heart and her home forever. Single mum Toni has been tied to the place for as long as she can recall, although farming was never her dream. And Flick is as passionate about the farm as a girl could be, despite the limited opportunities for love. When a letter from 1946 is unearthed, the Sunnyvale girls find themselves on a journey into their own hearts and across the world. 

For many years Elizabeth Lawson has battled single-handedly to run the family's historic horse stud in memory of her beloved father. But a devastating loss puts her dreams at risk. With no options left, Liz is forced to turn to her estranged sister Kayla for help. Kayla has built a new life in the city as a wedding planner, far removed from the stableyard sweat and dust of her rural upbringing. She never thought she'd go back. But when Liz calls out of the blue, Kayla forms a plan that could save their childhood home.

Armed with an honours degree in Agribusiness, Amanda Greenfield dreams of employing all the skills she's learnt at college to help her father turn the family farm from a debt-ridden, run-down basket case into a thriving enterprise. Then tragedy strikes with the death of Amanda's mother in a car accident. Wracked by grief and guilt, and wearied by the long struggle to keep Kyleena a going concern, Amanda's father argues that they should sell up and get on with their lives away from the vagaries of drought and fluctuating stock and crop yields.

When marketing executive Tessa Mathison leaves London to attend her great-aunt's funeral in Australia, her life is in turmoil. An indiscretion during a boozy night out has resulted in Tessa's name being mud in London's cliquey marketing scene, and soon after she arrives in her homeland she discovers she's been sacked. Tessa's childhood home, Danjar Plains, is an isolated station which holds some bad memories for her. She plans to escape it as soon as the funeral is over, but then an unusual request in her Aunt Violet's will makes it impossible for her to leave.

When Sassi Stapleton receives a middle-of-the-night phone call to tell her that her beloved grandmother is unwell, she quickly puts her job on hold, packs her ute and sets off on the long drive home, knowing her grandfather will need her. Less than an hour away from Sassi's hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment. By the time Sassi is found, her grandmother has already passed away.

Anna and Matt Butler were childhood sweethearts with a dream of owning their own land, a dream they achieved through hard work and determination. But as the seasons conspire against them and Matt is involved in a terrible accident, the couple face financial ruin and the loss of their farm. As they fight for everything they hold dear, they suddenly find themselves caught up in events much bigger and more dangerous than they could ever have imagined.

Reggie Macleod had her life sorted. As a kid in a small school with only twelve students; she vowed she was going to live in the city and be something important. And she'd followed her dream. Then her world changed with one phone call from her brother. Returning to River Styx, the cattle property where she grew up on the New England Tablelands, Reggie came home to help after her parents barely survived a car accident. It was only going to be for a couple of months … that was almost three years ago.

Charity Farrugia is too sensible to believe she'll find love in a paddock. After all, at thirty-four, she's the one with the secure career and the mortgage. The one who took on the job of raising her two sisters when Mom got sick. Everyone knows she's the practical one. The responsible one. Yeah, the boring one. But it would be neither safe nor prudent to let Faith and Hope spend a weekend in the country without her, would it?

Faith Forrester is at a crossroads. Single, thirty and living on a farm in a small Western Australian town, she's sick of being treated like a kitchen slave by her brother and father. Ten years ago, her mother died of breast cancer, and Faith has been treading water ever since. She wants to get her hands dirty on the family farm. She wants to prove to herself that she's done something worthwhile with her life. And she wants to find a man...

Peony flower farmer Clancy Parker was born and bred in the Australian high country. Small-town Bundilla is the only place she will ever truly belong, even if staying means remaining alone. The man she'd loved is long gone, and single men are as rare as a summer snowfall. As soon as he could, street artist Heath MacBride escaped his complicated family and traded mountain peaks for city concrete. Now a commission to paint a mural on Bundilla's water tower brings him home.