While on a seaside holiday with his family, a teenage boy becomes infatuated with a young woman accompanying them as a housekeeper. As his older brother begins a relationship with her, the boy’s frustration grows, leading to actions that disrupt both the family dynamic and the fragile relationships around him. The conflict culminates in a breakdown of trust between the brothers.

Teresa is a spirited young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of 1930s society, and her father in particular. She fancies her poverty-stricken Latin tutor Johnathan Crow, without realising he merely considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, and eventually follows him from Sydney to London. En route she meets the gentle banker James Quick. Whilst navigating her relationships in London, including with a political poet bound for the Spanish Civil War, she experiences a transformation in her understanding of love. Based upon Christina Stead's best-selling Australian novel.