Based on Bryce Courtenay's novel of the same name, this four-hour miniseries tells the story of Ikey Solomon, his wife Hannah and his mistress Mary. Set in London and Tasmania in the middle 19th century it is the first in a trilogy of novels to be made into a mini-series. The story starts in London in the early 19th century. Mary and Ikey start working together as business partners. It follows them as they are separately sent to Tasmania, a penal colony at the time.