After his father’s death, a young Rupert inherits a small newspaper in 1950s Adelaide. There, he teams up with the paper’s editor to save a man sentenced to hang. When the paper is threatened, a ruthless streak emerges in the boy publisher. He brings down the man he saw as a father figure. 

In the present day, Paddy finds an unpublished manuscript that sheds new light on how Rupert’s relationship with his first great editor fell apart.