Ballarat, 1854...a bleak encampment of tents in a valley.
Here 30000 men scramble for the gold under their feet by day - and every night drink it, gamble it away, or spend it on their women.
Strange circumstances at Ballarat bring two of these women together.
Rose Maguire, ravishing and flamboyant, who meets life with open arms and a calculating brain...
Emma Brown, lonely, shy, gentle - who has killed two men...
Their lives are inextricably tangled when they fall in love - with the same man.