McLeod's Daughters - Plot

Plot

Jack McLeod dies and leaves his heavily mortgaged family farm, Drovers Run, to his daughters. Claire is Jack's daughter from his first marriage. His first wife, Prudence, died giving birth to Claire's brother Adam. Jack later married Ruth Silverman, and they had a daughter, Tess. The two girls were close growing up, but were separated when Ruth took five-year-old Tess back to the city. At the beginning of the series, Tess returns home to the place she left more than 20 years before.

Tess, who recently lost her mother to breast cancer, hopes to sell her share of the farm and open a café in the city, but is disappointed when she is met with a less-than-rosy financial picture and the open resentment of her older sister. Claire fires the male workforce after they are caught stealing petrol from the farm, and the sisters run the farm themselves, with the help of housekeeper Meg Fountain, her daughter Jodi, and local girl Becky. The tentative partnership is the first step in the reunited sisters' effort to heal old wounds, improve their relationship, and lift the property out of debt.

Three years later, in October 2003, Claire’s best friend Stevie Hall arrives at Drovers Run to replace Becky, who left with Jake to run a farm. Weeks after Stevie arrived, and after Claire gives birth to her daughter, Charlotte in a paddock. Tess and Alex barely makes it to her side to help her. Claire and Tess are driving home with party supplies, with the baby BOM (baby of McLeod), when Claire loses her life in a tragic car accident. Alex had plans with an engagement ring on her pillow. Heartbroken, Tess is left to run Drovers by herself with the help of Stevie and the girls. Eventually, Stevie invests her opals into Drover's Run, and Tess gives her 10% of the property, promising Stevie she will always have a home for her and her daughter Rose.

In March 2006, Tess and her husband Nick decide to leave Drovers to run a farm in Argentina. After finding letters and DNA support, Jodi discovers that Jack McLeod was her real father. Tess and Nick come home, Jodi reveals to Tess she is her sister. Tess and Nick leave again for Argentina, Stevie is now running the family property with the help of Jodi, her cousin Regan, and Jodi's best friend Kate Manfredi, who arrived in 2004.

In 2007, Jodi decides to go into witness protection with her boyfriend Matt, leaving Drover's Run. In Jodi's absence, she deeds her part of the family property to her cousins Regan, Grace and Jazmine as per her "will" because she is presumed dead in a car accident, and cannot own property.

With Regan running the farm with Stevie, Tayler and Kate, Regan’s estranged sister Grace Kingston arrives at Drover's Run after getting a letter in the mail. Regan is a geologist and is torn between her love for rocks and Drover's. The romantic relationship between Alex and Stevie continues to develop and later that year, they marry. Regan also departs to study for a new job.

In 2009, Kate Manfredi leaves Drover's for a new job, and Regan returns after a year away. After her return, Regan and Grace's sister Jazmine McLeod makes a surprising appearance at Drovers, hiding a dark secret. Stevie Hall's cousin Ben Hall also arrives at Drovers to help out after Alex's death. In the series finale, Jodi Fountain-McLeod happily returns to Drover's Run to give birth to her first child with Matt, after coming out of witness protection. Her husband Matt is working elsewhere.

At the end of the show, nine women who represent Drover's Run: Stevie, Jodi, Grace, Jazmine, Regan, Moira, Meg, Ingrid, and Tayler ride horses to cliff viewing the property. It has been said that Tess speaks but she never does.