John Knight and his colleagues, who are part-time Australian Army soldiers, have escaped the Japanese once. Now they must continue to chance their arm as they setup a coast watcher network. The Coastwatchers will report on the Japanese from the islands of New Guinea. It's more than the Coastwatchers and the army who are under threat from the Japanese. There are many civilians in the New Guinea region who will soon be within the clutches of the advancing Japanese army. No one could have imagined the speed and efficiency of the Japanese army or their capacity to inflict cruelty on the innocent. They are not playing by the gentleman's rules of war. John knows there is no sense regretting his decision to join the part-time army. No one knew that the Japanese would attack New Guinea in 1942. It was just bad luck that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Australian Army is not prepared for the Japanese and considers John and his colleagues expendable, as they undertake their important mission. The group is using a stolen Japanese gunboat to deceive the Japanese but now they must fight their enemy on land and sea. The Coastwatchers on the islands around New Guinea are depending on John's group for their lives. John's group of part-time soldiers know they must quickly become better soldiers and have the luck of the Irish, if they are to survive the war.