Synopsis

Bill Lancaster rose from being a young Aussie Digger in the trenches of World War One to become one of the world's celebrated pioneer aviators. 

It's 1917 on the Western Front in World War One. Bill Lancaster is a Digger fighting in the mud alongside other young men who are being slaughtered in their tens of thousands. Above the noise he hears the sound of an aeroplane and looks up. When he sees the pilot he knows that he looking at an individual, a man in charge of his own destiny, a man who can fight and die on his own terms. The urge to fly is born.

When Jesse "Chubbie" Miller hears in 1927 that Bill Lancaster is planning to fly an open cockpit biplane from Britain to Australia she persuades him to take her along even though she'd never sat in an aeroplane before.

The plane is a two seater Avro Avian MKIII, a fabric covered, tubular steel biplane weighing 900lbs. It has an 80 horsepower petrol engine that can cruise at 80mph giving it a range of 900miles. Bill names it  "Red Rose" after his mother who is known as Sister Red Rose within the "The Mission of Flowers", a charity that assists ex-soldiers from the First World War. Bill agrees to distribute her Mission of Flowers pamphlets along the way to Australia.
 
During Bill and Chubbie's wild journey through sandstorms, crash landings and other setbacks, Bill teaches Chubbie how to fly. When they arrive in Australia she is greeted as a heroine for being the first female  to fly the route.

Although they are both married they fall in love and begin a torrid affair that sees them leave for America to seek more flying fame. While Chubbie known as'The Australian Aviatrix' becomes one of America's, and the world's, most famous female flyers by breaking numerous records, Bill suffers continuing setbacks and disappointments.

The Great Depression of 1929 sees them almost penniless and they move to Miami where it is cheaper to live. While Bill is in Mexico on yet another effort to earn money and achieve flying success, Chubbie falls in love with Haden Clarke, a younger man who they have hired to ghost write her autobiography. When Bill's efforts again turn into failure he returns to Miami. What follows is a charge of first degree murder and a sensational trial that grips the world.

The Mission of Flowers follows Bill Lancaster's journey from the mud of the Western Front in 1917 through to his purchase of Charles Kingsford-Smith's tiny biplane, the Southern Cross Minor, and finally the toughest fight of his life.