Fay lives on windswept Breaksea Island with only her journal to confide in. Life changes dramatically in 1914 when war is declared and the 30,000 men of the combined Australian New Zealand Imperial Forces gather in Albany. Fay becomes a lifeline for homesick soldiers desperate to send a final telegraph message to their loved ones. She continues the long-distance conversations with letters and postcards, following the fortunes of her soldiers from Egypt to Gallipoli. Then one day a single sad letter arrives and the war is brought brutally home.