Major Bowen is a fine upstanding Australian officer. He has survived the First World War - Egypt, Gallipoli, France - and found a dinkum Pommie missis in London. After the Armistice he and Celia set out for God's Own Country on the troop ship 'Rudolstadt'. With them are other officers and their families, plus 800-odd rioting diggers and a gang of prisoners on the lower decks. Theirs is a dry ship, ingeniously sabotaged by the Germans - and a long journey lies ahead...