Bill Lawson (Eddie O'Reilly), a wharf labourer, loses his job and decides to go out bush to find work to support his wife Elsa (Stella Southern) and daughter Betty. He befriends a well-born Englishman, Kenneth Hillyard (Rawdon Blandford) after rescuing him from two thugs and the two decide to go prospecting together.

When Bill, a worker at Woolloomooloo Wharf, breaks his leg, his wife, Nell has to go to work. She's successful, saving her daughter money, but she gets sick and dies after the operation, promising to raise Peggy the lady.

Peter Vernon's mother dies and he is adopted by a squatter, Kingston, whose son, Philip, is Peter's age. The two grow up and fall in love with the same girl, Marie.