Carry a Torch

Neil is a big, rugged, knockabout guy: rugby player, cricketer, surfer and Lothario. He's also a medical student heading into the second half of his course in late 1970s Brisbane. Neil is smitten with Kirsten, a once frumpy classmate who has undergone a drastic makeover. Their love affair is intense but complicated by the presence of Kirsten's housemates, Jess and Bridget, both of them already notches on his belt. Kirsten loses interest in Neil after suffering a miscarriage and he is devastated when she runs off to Western Australia with another man she meets at a party held by her politician father. After a country term in Townsville where he decides he wants to be a surgeon, Neil finds himself in an equally intense relationship with Amanda, a West Indian-English drug company rep and semi-professional musician, who is not what she seems. Her travails drag Neil down though his studies ground him. He stumbles into a relationship with another damaged woman but extricates himself before any harm is done. Unknow to Neil, Kirsten’s television reporter sister, Sally, who disconcerted him greatly at first, has decide he's the man for her. To Neil’s great surprise, Sally turns out to be the love of his life. He graduates and looks forward to the rest of his life until Sally is snatched away tragically. Kirsten eventually fills the void.