When Sam Broady discovers an old man collapsed on the road in front of his car in the middle of a snowstorm he is astounded to discover that the man is dressed only in night attire. Unable to call for help, Sam drives home with his passenger. Jimmy, as the old man is called, recovers in Sam’s home. As Jimmy recovers he tells Sam of momentous news he had recently received from Australia: the body of his father, believed by his mother to have disappeared during World War 2 near Australia, had been discovered in a wartime plane wreck in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Subsequently Jimmy employs Sam to accompany him to Lae in Papua New Guinea to visit the grave of his father. Having returned to Yorkshire, Jimmy dies a few months later and Sam decides to put together a biography for Jimmy’s newly discovered family in Australia – relations who were found as a result of the funeral of his father. Based upon a diary which Jimmy has written, Sam uncovers the details of a remarkable life.