The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant

Cornwall, 1786, hungry Mary Broad is convicted to death for stealing a lady's picnic but 'mercifully' allowed to join for life first governor Phillip's founding shipload to start a penal colony at Botany bay in New South Wales

Mary, her husband Will, their two children, and five other men set sail for Timor, closely followed by Clarke who obsessively pursues them. Through sheer grit and enormous luck, most of them make it 4,000 miles to the Dutch colony of Timor.

In Timor, Mary and the other men enjoy the luxury of freedom under false identities. However, fate conspires against them as Clarke stops there on his way back to England.