Hunger and disease, murder and suicide, are thinning the ranks of those guards and convicts who waded ashore at Sydney Cove in January 1788. For the survivors, many of whom are veterans of London's gang wars, it's business-as-usual. New South Wales emergent underworld is directed by Our Thing, the barque Alexander's lagged men and women, led by the taciturn ex-redcoat Joe "Tinderbox" Cribb, and the resolute Irish actress "Mrs" Catherine Brandon. But as famine and despair stalk the convict colony, and its garrison threatens to mutiny, a deadly new force is about to challenge Our Thing's tightening grip on Sydney Town.