AustLit

In 1950, English couple Louise and Michael arrive in French-occupied Indochina to cover a story on a rubber plantation. They stay as guests of the enigmatic plantation overseer Daniel and his beautiful yet difficult daughter Viola at their elegant, decaying villa amid a tropical jungle. Hoping that some time spent working in an exotic location will help reignite the passion in their floundering marriage, Michael and Louise instead find themselves unwittingly involved in the personal, sexual, and political tensions of their hosts. Daniel is desperate to hold onto a way of life no longer possible in a country struggling for independence, bringing him into conflict not only with his daughter but also with his adopted country.

Frank is drawn to Vanuatu by a summons from his brother Charlie but, arriving to find Charlie dead, he is drawn into the orbit of his brother's partner Viv and Viv's unhappy wife.

In this mini-series, which consciously takes its name from a 1955 western by Anthony Mann, Kate Adamson, a struggling single mother living in Los Angeles, meets, falls in love with, and marries Tom Hannon, a single father who runs an outback cattle station in Australia. Not realising that her new husband has been killed in a plane crash on his way home, Kate arrives at Larapinta to face not only two shocked stepdaughters (who were unaware of their father's remarriage) but also a severe drought and the machinations of her neighbours on the enormous cattle station that borders Larapinta. Resisting her children's desire to return to the United States, Kate resolves to remain and see Larapinta through the drought.

Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series that

The series was aimed directly at a network sale and to that end producer Hal McElroy not only used his writer on the great potboiler Return to Eden, but also cast both Linda Evans and Jason Robards in central roles. The series was shot in Los Angeles and Alice Springs, and even though the budget blew out from an anticipated $4.5 million to $12 million, the series achieved an American network sale to CBS, the first Australian series to do so.

The mini-series also rated well when it was screened in Australia.