Jessica is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 miniseries

Miniseries

A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

 originally broadcast by the Ten Network in 2004. It is a heart-rending story of one woman's remarkable fight for justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

 against enormous odd

Odd

Odd is an adjective denoting the quality of being unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric.Odd may also refer to:In mathematics, the term odd is used in several senses related to even:...

s. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, against the harsh landscape of the Australian outback, Jessica portrays the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit, as one woman faces life's toughest challenges.

Plot

The Bergman sisters could not be more different. While Jessica is a feisty tomboy

Tomboy

A tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of the gender role of a boy, including the wearing of typically masculine-oriented clothes and engaging in games and activities that are often physical in nature, and which are considered in many cultures to be the...

 who loves to help her father work their farmland, her beautiful sister, Meg, is eagerly being groomed by her mother, Hester, to be the perfect wife so that she can marry her way out of poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

. However, when the man that Meg has set her sights on falls in love with Jessica and gets her pregnant, Hester pitilessly schemes to wrench the couple apart to claim Jessica's son for Meg, and finally commits Jessica to a mental asylum. It is here that Jessica receives news of her lover's death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

 and almost loses hope, but after enlisting the help of Mr. Runche, a down and out lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 battling alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

, she is eventually released. Years later, it is the reformed Runche who gives Jessica the courage to fight for the return of her child.