On the edge of a small town in New South Wales, far from the battlefields of World War Two, lies a prisoner-of-war camp holding Italian, Korean and Japanese soldiers. For their guards and the locals, many with loved ones away fighting, captive or dead, it is hard to know how to treat them - with disdain, hatred or compassion? The culture of the Japanese inmates is fatally misread by the camp commanders. Mortified by being taken alive, they plan an outbreak, to shattering and far-reaching effect.