When Perfection Middleton catches the eye of Darcy Buchanan, all hell breaks loose. Joint heir to the vast estate of Caravale in North Queensland, he's a catch all right, and far too good for a housemaid whose parents came over on a convict ship. That's what his family thinks, anyway, and his brother Ben dreams up an ingenious plan to prevent the marriage. It's a plan that goes tragically wrong...

Lew Cavour is very taken with Perfy too, but he gets caught up in the gold rush and the race to stake a claim on the river of gold, as does Ben Buchanan, who sees it as the only way he can buy out Perfy's share of Caravale. But their journey to the river of gold is dogged by disease, madness and murder...