Based on the novel by Dorothy Hewett published 1959
It is the late 1950s and the Russians launch the first Sputnik. A group of
women sweat in the Jumbuck Woollen Mills in Sydney for breadline wages.
The whistle blows - grime is washed from faces, hair combed, lipstick appliedand
the workers emerge, women again, leaving the factory behind them. Out
into the evening streets, flashing neon lights and the journey home to family
and lovers. Among them are Shirl, nineteen and four months pregnant;
Dawnie, beautiful and fiercely chaste; Patty, singing in the dance halls; and
Nell, an active Communist Party member. These women have their own
dreams; but a common spirit binds them, and with Nell as their leader they will
come together for the fight which lies ahead....
