Kate Howarth is the child of a single mother, father uncertain, brought up by her Aboriginal grandmother. She in turn becomes pregnant at sixteen. Determined to keep her son despite the pressure to give him up for adoption, she marries the father. The marriage doesn't go well and Kate leaves without her son, hoping to come back for him when she is settled, but things don't go as planned and she doesn't see him again for fourteen years. She goes on to build a successful career in the personnel industry by dint of intelligence and persistence, marries the boss, and builds up their firm to one of the country's most successful recruitment companies. This marriage is another loveless one, though, and she eventually 'pulls the plug'. A third marriage to an American met via internet dating is a fiasco when he turns out to be a penniless transvestite.