Beautiful and talented Tessa Clarke (Thomas) returns to Australia from the U.S. intent on establishing her own fashion design business, and to reunite with her father Bert (Tingwell) and younger sister Sally (Annesley), a drug addict and call-girl with a taste for dangerous men and an intense jealousy of her older sister. Tessa’s fledgling empire is crushed when a former employer, Pamela Winter-Smith (Wallace), wins a court claim on her designs. Tessa flees to the Gold Coast where she falls for Chris (Healey), a handsome nightclub owner with underworld connections and a sordid past. Leaving Chris behind, Tessa’s business is saved by the investment of secretive millionaire Phillip Harmon (Clarke). Just as everything is looking up, Chris comes back to haunt Tessa and Bert is tragically killed in a mysterious explosion.

Tessa reels from her father’s death, while Phillip Harman is intent on showing her his love and showers her with lavish gifts. Mindful of warnings issued by her increasingly disturbed ex-boyfriend Chris, and her American photographer friend Matt (Joseph Bottoms), Tessa is seduced by Harmon’s charms and begins an affair with him. His glamorous socialite wife, Samantha (Behets), advises Tessa not to probe too closely into Phillip’s business affairs, hinting that he too may have underworld connections. Meanwhile, Tessa’s wayward sister Sally goes missing and Tessa’s worst fears are confirmed when she finds her. As Tessa's relationship with Harmon cracks under the pressure and she grows closer to her friend Matt, Tessa must fight several attempts on her life, union black bans against her business, and continue the search for her father’s killer.