Graeme Sweetapple is a man down on his luck, reduced to stealing cattle to pay the mortgage on the family farm. Early one Christmas morning, Sweetapple is heading home with a truck full of stolen steers when he comes across an upended ute that has hit a tree. Anna, one of the two passengers he helps out, is an anti-coal mine protestor, and she has stolen a small explosives pack that one of the more extreme protestors had taken from the mine. When she spots the cattle, she blackmails Sweetapple into taking the explosives and hiding them.
Sweetapple cares for the horses of his wealthy neighbours, Bob and Caroline Statham. He despises the dodgy big-business ethics of Bob and his ex-politician wife, but he loves horses and needs the money, so when Bob asks him to steal a very expensive horse for him, he agrees.
The horse is called Retribution, and Sweetapple forms a strong attachment to her. He fantasises about keeping her, and finds it difficult to ultimately hand her over to Bob. So when Bob subsequently does something terrible to the horse, Sweetapple wants revenge. But is revenge the solution or the problem?
