Set in an Australian lumber town in 1939. Marge (Rachel Ward), the bored wife of kindly-but-dull Sonny (Bryan Brown) begins dreaming of outside romances. She unexpectedly gets her wish in the form of Sonny's much-younger brother Sugar (Steven Vidler), whom Sonny cheerfully offers to his wife as a surrogate bed-mate. Given this curious arrangement, one wonders why Marge is so upset when she is propositioned by handsome stranger Neville (Sam Neill). Eventually, Gifford sleeps with every other woman in town but Marge. Fed up with the unimaginative lovers in her own house, Marge finally gives in to Gifford, arousing the jealousy not of the cloddish Sonny, but of the immature Sugar.