Sydney, 1977.
Carol Sheridan is in her final year at the St James Law Campus of Sydney University. Supporting her radical views by extensive research, she quietly obliges the conservative Law Faculty to reward her with top marks. Her studies consume most of her life and she has few interests aside from her small group of close friends.
When her guardian returns to Sydney, he hatches a scheme to change the status of women in both politics and the legal profession. Carol accepts the challenge and joins him. But she misreads events and learns through personal danger that idealism is a poor defence against greed.