They came from England - thieves, felons, murderers, justly and unjustly accused - human cargo destined to hack a life from the harsh Australian wilderness. Packed into the teemed holds of His Majesty's ships. they sailed treacherous seas to the icy desolation of Antarctica, to the South Cape of Tasmania, to Captain Cook's anchorage in Botany Bay.

It was a cruel, violent fate for fifteen-year-old Jenny Taggart. Falsely accused of theft, she was torn from her loved ones, a beautiful child among hardened convicts, an innocent in the craft of survival.

Betrayed by her beauty, sustained by courage, she would endure to become Queen of the Convicts, target of passion and vengeance in a raw, merciless land...