Jamie Carr is a young man growing up in Bundaberg, Northern Queensland during the closing years of World War I. Jamie, who is in his final year of high school, was brought up by his grandmother. Grandma Carr is known and loved by all in the town, and does her best to help Jamie through the emotional turmoil of adolescence and a society struggling under old traditions and beliefs in a new country.

Hancock, (who was voted Britain's best-ever comic 35 years after his death) leaves his home in Railway Cuttings, East Cheam, England for warmer, more challenging climes. He encounters the Australian natives on his terms having dragged his attitudes with him halfway across the world.