On the edge of a smal Australian town, far from the battlefields of the Second W
orld War, a camp holds thousands of Japanese, Italian and Korean prisoners of wa
r. The locals are unsure how to treat the "enemy", though Alice Herman, whose yo
ung husband is himself a prisoner in Europe, becomes drawn to the Italian soldie
r sent to work on her father-in-law's farm. The camp commander and his deputy, e
ach conceling a troubled private life, are disunited. And both fatally misread t
heir Japanese captives, who burn with shame at being taken alive. The stage is s
et for a clash of cultures that has explosive, far-reaching consequences.
