Yongala

Aboard S.S. Yongala, Professor Frederick Portland and his young niece, Felicity, are traveling with the Smoke Engine, a new renewable energy invention.

Fearing that the Smoke Engine will ruin them, the Queensland Coal Board task Boer War veteran, Corben Plath, with murdering Professor Portland and destroying the machine.

At sea, Plath strikes an innocent friendship with Felicity, not realising that she is the niece of the man that he has been sent to kill.

When Plath learns that there are armed men aboard the ship looking for him, the voyage runs into heavy weather. As the tempest worsens, Plath comes to see that his own salvation depends on Felicity surviving the storm.