Wallaby Station in the outback is devastated by drought. The sheep are starving, but Jo Galloway (Charles Beetham) and his wife (Nan Taylor) battle on. Their son Gilbert (Rawdon Blandford) falls in with the wrong crowd while studying medicine in Sydney: conman Varsy Lyddleton (John Faulkner) and the seductress Olive Lorette (Marie La Varre). Gilbert forges his mother’s cheques to pay for Olive’s favours, ruining the family. A bank takes ‘friendly possession’ of Wallaby Station. Gilbert’s sister Marjorie (Trilby Clark) keeps her brother out of jail, but he becomes a tramp, after Lyddleton murders Olive and kills himself. Marjorie’s suitor Tom Wattleby (Dunstan Webb) saves Gilbert from a bushfire, just as the drought breaks, restoring the family’s fortunes. Marjorie and Tom can now wed, as the sheep and cattle fatten on rich pasture.

Young minister Brand Cameron meets stage star Adrienne Durant at her father's humble country home. Believing her an innocent country girl, Cameron falls in love with her. She confesses her racier life and returns to New York. Cameron follows, unable to give Adrienne up, his parishioners denounce him and force him to resign. He departs, accepting a post in a tough lumber camp while Adrienne accepts the charge of a school for poor children. Later Faro Kate falsely accuses Cameron of fathering her child enraging the lumbermen who set fire to his church. Discovering Kate's baby is trapped inside Cameron risks his like to save the child causing Kate to retract her lie and Adrienne comes to join him in his new ministry.

Young marrieds Paul, the Viscount De Sallure, and his bride Florence are in financial straits. Florence’s inheritance is available to her only if she separates from her husband so the pair concoct a scheme to give that appearance. Problems emerage when Paul seems to be taken the ploy to heart with Mlle. Fifi but all turns out well in the end.

After being fired from his job at a grocer, George, gets a job as a stableboy at a local stud farm run by the Fleming family. He befriends the horse Hotspur who is a favourite to win the Melbourne Cup, and develops a strong whistle which is used to make the horse run fast.

Two rival newspaper editors in New York send journalists to the South Pacific to dig up new material.