One day in 1786 Mary Broad, a mariner's daughter from Cornwall, makes the biggest mistake of her short life and steals a silk hat from a passer-by. For this crime she is sentenced to death. But then Mary is given a reprieve. She is moved to a prison ship and told she and several hundred other convicts are to sail to a new colony on the other side of the world - this fate for a girl who previously had never been further than Plymouth. Courage and determination are Mary's only two assets. When faced with the horrific conditions on board ship, and the unknown quantity of this new outpost of the Empire she is bound for, she vows to survive, whatever it takes...