Romulus Gaita has immigrated to Victoria, Australia from his native Yugoslavia with his beautiful German wife, Christina, and their young son, Raimond, in search of a better life. Here, on a lonely and harsh rural homestead, Romulus cares for his wife and son, making a living as a blacksmith and farm laborer. But the glamorous Christina feels increasingly out of place and depressed in this desolate and foreign land, and struggling with her role as a mother and wife, eventually deserts the family, running off with Romulus’s best friend. Left alone to raise his young son, Romulus struggles against great adversity, doing his best to give Raimond a childhood, while trying to keep Christina in the boy’s life.