Noni and Kenji grow up in poverty in the street slums of Phnom Penh. Their father walks out out on them when they are babies and their mother is killed in a factory accident. At twelve years of age Kenji has his leg blown off in a land mind explosion. In order to survive, Kenji becomes a street beggar and Noni becomes a prostitute at the age of fourteen. Thousands of kilometres away in Queensland Australia, Tina and Roy are brought up in very different circumstances under the loving care of a hard-working farmer and his wife. But their life is difficult too, struggling to survive at the mercy of the harsh western Queensland climate. In a strange twist of fate Tina and Kenji are brought together in Southampton, England where a psychotic murderer begins terrorising Tina. In her frantic bid to escape his clutches she discovers some amazing things about Kenji. But even Kenji cannot save her from the terrors and traumas that await her.