Set in a fictional railway town in the far north of South Australia, On Gidgee Plains tells the story of Katherine Forster, a naïve and intense young city girl who, in 1962 aged 19, dreams of finding a husband. She travels to the outback with her parents and falls in love with the desert. Suffocated by her dysfunctional family and confronted by hard-drinking men, garrulous older women, frontier violence and rape, Katherine comes close to losing her reason. Through a growing friendship with an Aboriginal family, she learns about herself and the bush. As she heals, family tragedy strikes. Is Katherine prepared to step into the future alone?