Harry (Humphries)

Harry Harrigan is a young Australian accountant who's been forced to return to his rural hometown by his bullying father who threatens harm to Harry's mother unless he returns to work for him. Knowing that his father has full control, Harry complies and makes the best of his new job and life in Monaldo. There, he falls in love with a beautiful young woman from a neighbouring town. Eventually he has the inevitable clash with his father and leaves, taking his mother with him. In Brisbane, he's quickly employed by a big American forensic accounting firm and is trained as an investigator. He leaves on assignment overseas, perhaps, he's warned, never to return to Australia and he has a huge success rate. He's had to leave Sara behind until the future is clear. After two years on the move he's assigned to the company's biggest case-embezzlement from a big European conglomerate-a case with which previous investigators have had no success. Harry begins to get results and, to gain some relaxation, goes for a recreational flight one Sunday, near Dover. Soon after taking off, his plane's engine stops and he recalls rumours of an attempt on his life. He'd ignored them until now, as he drifts silently over Dover, trying to get the plane safely down and thinking of Sara…

Harry Harrigan, tough Australian financial investigator, has been brought in from the cold to enjoy a quiet domestic life in Brisbane, Australia, after a hazardous two years solving financial crimes all over the world--non-stop. His boss, George Balfour, believes that Harry, having just survived an attempt on his life during his final and biggest inquiry, has done enough. He appoints him manager of the company's Queensland branch, but indicates he will want him in New York in the future, with a view to taking over Balfour G as chief executive. But Harry's immediate goal is to marry Sara Grayson, a beautiful girl from a small cattle town in Central Queensland. They've been in love, but separated, for four years. In a confused state, believing wrongly that Harry had fathered an illegitimate child, Sara had broken off their engagement and made a bad and hasty marriage to a difficult and devious man, who leaves the marriage almost immediately but continues to frustrate Sara's attempt to get a divorce. As he was leaving for his first assignment Harry devised a slightly illegal plan to help Sara and she is now free. Now they are married and settled in Brisbane. Their domestic bliss is shattered, however, when Sara suffers severe brain damage in a riding accident and is in hospital for two years, much of it on life support. Harry is never far away. Sara eventually recovers but is not the same. A risky but possibly curative operation is offered through the Balfour family and Sara, who has thought of suicide because of her mental state, accepts. Harry has to be present and helping in the surgery. It works to the extent that Sara is invited to appear before a Congressional subcommittee which is inquiring into the surgery. The beautiful Sara and handsome Harry are a sensation in the United States and, for a while, Australia. They return home to their comfortable anonymity where Harry has taken control of his family company Pattersons Industries. He has inherited a third share from his mother and is now becoming a wealthy man. He and Sara set up a charitable foundation to dispose of their money, but more importantly, to help those less fortunate. But since returning to full health, the now energetic and vibrant Sara has taken enthusiastically to management of her family, where once, in her illness, Harry had ruled. She assumes more and more control. Harry observes this but he is so happy to have his old Sara back that he doesn't interfere, afraid he'll cloud her happiness. He realises eventually that he now has no say in their lives and tries to talk to Sara but she is beyond listening and Harry realises their marriage is in trouble. It comes to a head when Harry, having used his business skills to investigate the worth of a cattle property his mother-in-law has inherited, proposes to buy it and form a family company. Sara, now the decision-maker, dismisses the idea, suggesting that Harry, a townie, wouldn't know enough about such a rural undertaking, to succeed. Harry tells Sara all that he knows, disclosing that the property has been an exceptional one and very profitable. He then calls off the deal, packs his bag and leaves Sara, telling her he still loves her but can no longer live with her. A distraught Sara begs him to stay but he is adamant, resisting all attempts by family and friends to bring about a reconciliation. Living in Brisbane, away from Sara, in Elmsford, he begins to think of divorce. But Sara has a plan...

After a rocky few months in their marriage, Harry and Sara Harrigan are reunited and more in love than ever. But Harry has a problem. He is warned that an American corporate predator, Buddy Harrison, has designs on Harry's family company, Pattersons Industries, and is wooing Harry's two co-owners, his aunts Faye and Joyce. An influenza epidemic is raging through Queensland, Australia, and Harry and Sara are constantly on the move helping family members. Harry hears that his aunts have agreed to a meeting with Harrison in Brisbane and is determined to disrupt the meeting. He must fly to Brisbane but Sara is ill with flu and he reluctantly leaves her at Elmsford. He successfully goads Harrison into antagonizing his aunts and they assure him Pattersons is safe. He speeds to the aerodrome to fly to Sara but is warned that, due to the flu epidemic, the only charter aircraft available is overdue for service in some areas and he shouldn't fly. But he is desperate to get to Sara and takes off. In the air he is warned of severe storms along his route and eventually is forced to land at a coastal city, Burnsport, 100 miles west of his destination but across the Great Dividing Range. There he learns that Sara is seriously ill and impatiently waits out the expected storms. He is cleared to fly to Monaldo, the nearest strip to Elmsford, but runs into a storm cell which appears suddenly. His plane receives lightning strikes which disrupt the radio and the instruments. Just as he seems to have cleared the storm a bird strikes the windscreen hitting Harry in the face and nearly blinding him. Other bird-strikes batter the little Cessna and one hits the engine. He is in thick cloud and, by the time he can partly see he realizes the sputtering plane is headed for the ground. He shouts Sara's name as he braces for the impact of the crash. When news of Harry's disappearance reaches his home area a 100-strong search party is formed and they cross the Range to join the search. Because of rain there is little air search going on. The search authorities admit to Sara, now discharged from hospital and at Burnsport, that because of the storms, they have little idea where Harry has come down. Sara, certain that she'd know if Harry was dead, never lets up on the co-ordinators and her own friends, all of whom, after six days, are wavering in their belief that they can find him. Some are going home but a few others believe they've been looking for Harry in the wrong place and set out to search elsewhere.....