In May 1787, fourteen hundred people embark on an extraordinary voyage travelling half-way around the world. Deborah, a spirited and determined young English woman finds herself part of this remarkable crossing to a strange new world. Deborah could never imagine what lies ahead for her throughout the crossing and her arrival on this distant hostile shore. She must endure dreadful hardships and will be forced to confront her innermost deepest fears. Deep bonds of friendship through common adversity are developed when she finds many others in the same circumstance as herself. At the frontier of the settlement, an unlikely friendship develops as Deborah comes face to face with the militant Indigenous inhabitants of the country. Along her journey, Deborah encounters love, heartache and a betrayal she must learn to forgive if she is to survive and forge a new life for herself. Karen Milne grew up on the outskirts of Sydney on the upper North Shore surrounded by the natural beauty of the Australian bush. Through her Mothers side of the family, she is a seventh generation Australian with her ancestors Deborah Ellam and John Herbert arriving as convicts on the first fleet in Sydney Cove in January 1788.