It is the early 20th Century and Federica Wheelwright, aided by her husband, George, has dreams and ambitions to be the first to create a commercial air service between London and Cape Town. Her dreams are interrupted by the Great War, but after the war she applies herself to the design and construction of a suitable plane. The race is on to get to the Cape first and there are several competing interests, will she be the first and will she be able to set up the commercial service in an era of considerable change in aviation not aided by a parsimonious British government who, unlike their European counterparts have taken the attitude that the fledgling airlines must sink or swim on their own.