Based upon the life of activist and trade unionist (and later MP)  Sonja Davies. The film covers her life up to 1956, when, at age  33, she was elected to the Nelson Hospital Board. During this  period she develops strong socialist beliefs, marries and  divorces, at age 17 trains as a nurse, has a romance (and a  child) with an American marine who is killed in WWII action. She  battles tuberculosis and marries a former boyfriend when he returns  from the war. She becomes part of a women's ill-fated campaign to  save the Nelson railway line from closure and begins to be elected  to political bodies.