It's 1832. Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Sarah Morgan and Harriet Clarke have been serving their sentences in Sydney Town. Each of them has begun to make a life for herself, but when Harrie's adopted child, Charlotte, is abducted, the girls must risk their very freedom to save her. But will Friday's desperate battle with her own vices drive her to fail not only herself but those she loves and all who love her?

It's 1830. Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Harriet Clarke and Sarah Morgan have been transported to Sydney from London. Each of them is struggling to forget the brutal crime she committed, but their fates are no longer theirs to control. Vicious underworld queen Bella Jackson holds the girls' futures in the palm of her hand, biding her time. Once again the girls must join forces to save one of their own.

Friday Woolfe is in London's notorious Newgate gaol, awaiting transportation for prostitution and theft. There she meets three other girls: intelligent and opportunistic thief Sarah Morgan, naive young Rachel Winter, and reliable Harriet Clarke. On the voyage to New South Wales, their friendship becomes an unbreakable bond - but there are others onboard who will change their lives forever. And in the land behind the sun, the only thing they have is each other....

When 18-year-old Kitty Carlisle's father dies in 1838, her suddenly impoverished mother hopes her beautiful daughter might at least find a good husband. But then, Kitty is compromised by an unscrupulous adventurer, and she is banished in disgrace to the colonies. In the infamous whaling port of Kororareka - known as the Hell-Hole of the Pacific - Kitty falls in love with Rian Farrell, a mysterious sea captain with secrets of his own. Shocking events force her to flee the Bay of Islands for Sydney, but her independent heart leads her into a web.

When Kitty and Rian Farrell sail their schooner Katipo III into Dunedin Harbour in 1863, they are on tenterhooks. The new Otago goldfields have attracted all-comers, including their friend Wong Fu from Ballarat, who has sent a message for their help. To their surprise, Wong Fu reveals he is more than a mere fortune seeker - he is in fact a Cloud Leopard tong master, and his daughter, Bao, has been kidnapped and taken to opium-ridden China. Kitty and Rian agree to retrieve the missing Bao, but as they sail closer to their quarry, the stakes jump dramatically. 

When the Yarrowee River bursts its banks, Rian Farrell, a dashing Irish sea captain and part-time gunrunner, disappears in the torrential flood. Believing herself a widow, the headstrong and passionate Kitty Farrell's heart is left in tatters after the sudden death of her beloved husband. In her grief, she finally succumbs to the attractions of his longtime shipmate, Daniel, who has loved her from afar for many years. The consequences are disastrous and will challenge Kitty Farrell both physically and mentally.  

In 1950s Auckland, things are changing - and fast. Women are joining the workforce in numbers, whitegoods are readily available, and the age of rock 'n' roll has arrived. Allie Manaia works the Elizabeth Arden counter at Smith and Caughey's. It's been two years since the Dunbar and Jones fire, where some of her friends perished, but she still has nightmares. Kathleen Lawson - rich, lonely, and bored - is one of Allie's customers. Kathleen takes a shine to Allie, but when Kathleen discovers Allie's husband is Maori, her attitude changes.

War has engulfed Europe and now the Pacific, and Australia is fighting for its future. For spinster Flora Atkins, however, nothing much has changed. Tending her dull office job and beloved brother and father, as well as knitting socks for the troops, leaves her relatively content. Then one day, a stranger gives her brother a white feather and Flora's anger propels her out of her safe life and into the vineyards of the idyllic Mildura countryside, a member of the Australian Women's Land Army.

The war is over and so are the jobs (and freedoms) of tens of thousands of Australian women. The armaments factories are making washing machines instead of bullets, and war correspondent Tilly Galloway has hung up her uniform and been forced to work on the women's pages of her newspaper - the only job available to her - where she struggles to write advice on fashion and make up. 

Christmas day, and DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call. A mass grave has been discovered on Oileán na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina's. The hospital has been closed for decades, and onsite graves were tragically common. Reynolds thinks his adversarial boss is handing him a cold case to sideline him. But then it transpires another body has been discovered amongst the dead - one of the doctors who went missing from the hospital in mysterious circumstances 40 years ago.