Alexander Archibald was a coalminer who came from Fife in Scotland to the colony of Victoria in 1857 to seek his fortune. He married Emily Morgan, the daughter of convicts who had been transported from Ireland and England to Van Diemen's Land.

The tale is a quintessentially Australian one. It is about convicts and colliers. The convicts came to the colonies with resentment against the authorities who had sentenced them to transportation for petty crime, particularly Emily's mother, who was sentenced amid the 1840s turmoil in Ireland. The colliers came from a background of serfdom in Scotland with boundless optimism about their chances of making a fortune on the goldfield. It is a story of optimism, tenacity and courage.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 170-173) and index.