Kath, a shy young woman, befriends Bob, the reclusive gardener at a seaside hotel where she's getting married. Kath has never come to terms with her mother leaving home when she was eight and that her overbearing father, Ken, never talks about her. Now she is getting married to escape, only to discover that her fiancée, Steve, is completely dominated by Ken as well. Bob is a gentle, eccentric man with a dry sense of humour and a troubled past. He spent a long time in prison and in the years he's worked at the hotel he has never ventured beyond the gardens, which he tends with obsessive care. Kath sparks a connection to an unresolved relationship from Bob's past with a girl called Louise which resonates so strongly that he feels compelled to leave the safety of the hotel and confront his past.

Based on a true story, set in the late 19th century: Lord Tichborne, the ninth richest nobleman in England, disappears after a South American shipwreck. Some years later his erudite Afro-English valet, Bogle, is sent to investigate rumors that Tichborne survived and settled in Australia. An alcoholic ruffian answer's Bogle's inquiries claiming to be the lost heir. Bogle suspects fraud, but conspires with the claimant to split the inheritance should the latter succesfully pass himself off to friends, family and the courts. As the claimant returns to England to continue his charade, enough people confirm his identity to make both the claimant and Bogle believe that he just might be the rightful heir after all.