There is a beautiful girl named Xiaomei Ji in the movie. Her ancestors were prisoners, and she was sent to this barren land to raise sheep and gradually developed here.

The story took place in Australia in the early 20th century, with the inland development of early Australian immigrants as the background. Father Ralph (richard chamberlain, richard chamberlain) becomes friends with a New Zealand immigrant family. Maggie (rachel ward, Rachel Ward), the youngest daughter of this family, has fallen in love with him since she was a girl. Father and Maggie love each other but can't be together. As an adult, Maggie married a husband who didn't understand amorous feelings and worked hard, but because of secular pressure, they met again. Since then, Ralph has secretly taken care of Maggie and her two children, and the Cleary family has undergone a series of changes in more than ten years. Ralph didn't know what Maggie's children had to do with himself until the tragedy of fate happened more than twenty years later.

This film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Australian contemporary writer Colleen mccullough.