My Brilliant Career

In 1897, Sybylla Melvyn has just entered young womanhood. She is still living at home with her poor farming parents in the Australian outback. She considers herself to be unattractive but clever. She dreams of a "brilliant" creative-oriented career, such as in the arts, but she is not yet ready to strike out on her own despite her spirited independent streak. She sees that independence as being incompatible with marriage which her elders seem to feel is the next logical step in her life. She welcomes her mother's decision for her to live with her wealthy maternal grandmother, especially considering the alternative which is to accept a job as a servant. That move is so that she can learn to be a proper young woman to attract that husband. Her Aunt Helen encourages her to marry a man she likes with prospects rather than marry a man she loves without prospects. In the former category is jackaroo Frank Hawdon, although Sybylla does not even seem to like him. In the latter category is Harry Beecham, an acquaintance from her childhood. He is a wealthy landowner, who has his pick of any woman he wants as his wife. Regardless of how she feels for Harry and how Harry may feel for her, she still may not see marriage as being part of her immediate future. But factors outside of her control may dictate what happens in Sybylla's life.