Seventeen-year-old Danine 'Oleary is Irish and finds herself imprisoned aboard the convict ship Hermina, surrounded by English female convicts and forced to confront harsh punishment and disease on a brutal voyage to the other side of the world. Selected as prison tutor, she discovers friendship and purpose in the cramped, unforgiving world below deck. Through Danine's Exile and Voyage to Van Diemen's Land, the novel explores the strength of the human spirit under the weight of nineteenth-century Britain's harsh laws and follows the experiences of a young woman exiled from home and left to survive a horrendous ocean journey on a convict ship and embark on a future in a country she never chose.