Romek and Zofia are trying to rebuild a life together, liberated from the shadow of the concentration camps. Merle Shanahan tiptoes around the volatile moods of her husband Miles. Mr Giancarlo, the aging patriarch, watches over the lives of his enormous family. Mr Sommers sits in silence on his verandah, smoking his pipe and remembering the Great War. Weintraub the communist sits in the bar and drinks whisky, all the while singing the Internationale under his breath. And Josh, Romek's twelve year old son, avoids local bullies, reads Jack London and tries to understand the world around him. In the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton in the 1950s half a dozen families are struggling to survive and begin new lives.