Alan Duncan is a lawyer, recently called to the bar in England, returning home to his wealthy parents' prosperous sheep station (ranch) in Australia. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and fought as a pilot in World War II before being injured in action and losing both feet in an air crash. His arrival home is marred by the apparent suicide of his parents' housekeeper, a young Englishwoman called Jessie Proctor.
Alan realises that this troubled woman must have left her personal papers hidden somewhere in the event that her suicide attempt was not successful. He searches the house and happens upon a small suitcase of letters, diaries and the woman's passport. He is appalled to learn that the woman was, in fact, Janet Prentice – a former Royal Navy Wren and the former girlfriend of his dead brother Bill, and someone for whom Alan had spent considerable time searching immediately after the war.
