Geordie Stubbs has roamed the world getting into scrapes. He's seen the trenches of World War I, the union wars of America's industrial heartland and the rise of Nazism in Germany, and journeyed through revolutionary French Indochina and Singapore to wash up among the migrant labourers who built Australia's post-war boom.

Now in Hobart Gaol accused of a shocking murder, he takes Dr Hetherington, the psychiatrist tasked with assessing his sanity, on a detailed tour of his varied career and the historical figures he met along the way.

Also in the room is stenographer Marjorie Sproule, who launches her own investigation to prove Geordie's innocence. But with a media frenzy playing on fear and prejudice against Geordie's colour, it's a race against time. Geordie has lived through the great events of the first half of the 20th century - will his remarkable life end on the gallows?