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Our tale starts in the Devon countryside where Squire Stephen Worthington is a tenant farmer on Lord Belriven's lands. Stephen Worthington's eldest daughter, Mary, was an exceptionally fine horsewoman as well as beautiful, and one fateful day, in the town of Tavistock, she came across a cavalryman Captain Pearce Lannigan, who was in a bad mood as he had just been ordered to take charge of a new penal settlement at Moreton Bay. A vagrant, John Pooler, was currently in the stocks, having been caught collecting firewood from Lord Belriven's park, and Lannigan proceeded to whip him until Mary intervened. Lannigan then attempted to manhandle Mary, until he was unhorsed by a local Cornishman, Nigel Lording, who then defeated him in a fight. Later on, Stephen Worthington died, and Lord Belriven, who was a rake of the district, attempted to claim both Mary and her magnificent horse for a heriot. Mary visited Lord Belriven at his Manor to attempt to talk him out of this course, but Lord Belriven then attempted to take Mary by force. Mary swoomed, and when she awoke the earl lay across her dead, with her stiletto plunged into his back. Both Mary and Nigel (whose stiletto it was), were charged and convicted of the murder. Nigel was originally sentenced to death, but then this was converted to transportation for life, whereas Mary was sentenced to transportation for life. Both ended up being sent to Moreton Bay where they came under the absolute control of Captain Pearce Lannigan, whose brutality to convicts knew no bounds