Marley Bollane is a clever young girl from country Victoria with a heart problem she keeps hidden from all but her parents. In the 1970s, she begins working at the Stock Exchange where she meets Richard Jamison, a charming, handsome man who is not aware his friend and employer, Ross Gilmore, is involved with criminals and drugs.

Marley and Richard marry and begin breeding stud racehorses on their property. Children follow and life is sweet until, one day, Richard's younger brother, Janson, arrives to stay. Before long he is selling drugs for a bikie gang camped in the nearby woods and associated with Ross Gilmore.

At this point, Marley and Richard's lives begin to unravel, starting with the theft of one of their stallions and the kidnapping of their children by the bikies. Richard's revenge is temporarily thwarted when he is framed and jailed for insider trading, leaving Marley to survive on her own.

Marley's life, already in disarray, collapses around her ... Will she ever recover from the range of traumas inflicted upon her? Will Marley ever find the happiness she seeks?