Stamped: Excess Baggage

Synopsis Winifred Gunn and her mother, Mildred, struggle under the weight of their belongings as they board the ship that will take them from their Scottish homeland to the colony in Australia. The British have decided they need more land for their sheep – land owned by farmers like Winifred’s family -- and the Scots have to go. During the long voyage, Winnie meets a young man named George Mclean who has a job waiting for him in Australia at a sheep station. After a brief courtship, George and Winifred are secretly married. But Winnie has already been promised to a wealthy and unscrupulous Englishman named Jack Carrigan, who is waiting for her in Australia. When they arrive in the colony, Jack is furious to learn that his intentions to marry Winnie have been thwarted, and he vows to get revenge one day. George, Winnie, and her mother move into quarters at the sheep station in Kyabram. Over time, George and Winnie produce seven children and grow close to Jacob and Jannis Mallory, who own and operate the station. After six years of saving his earnings, George buys a bit of land in Stanhope. Because Jacob and Jannis were unable to have children, they have decided to leave their legacy to George. When Jacob dies, George learns that all of Jacob’s holdings are left to him and Jannis, giving him the opportunity to start his cheese factory. Meanwhile, Jack has managed to insinuate himself back into the Mclean family by helping George establish the factory. When George dies suddenly, Jack steps in to comfort Winnie and help her run the business. After winning her trust, he tricks her into signing a deed turning over the family business to him. Devastated, Winifred sells the family house and moves her family to Melbourne. In late 1942, Winnie’s daughter Mary enlists in the army and is stationed at Townsville, Queensland, near a support station for the American army. She is swept off her feet by John, a smooth-talking American who fascinates her with his stories about life in America. Shortly after Mary becomes pregnant, John abandons her. His friend Norman, who has fallen in love with her, takes care of Mary and her new son, Alan. In 1945 they are married, and Mary returns to the U.S. with Norm to settle down in Nevada, where Norm begins work as an underground miner. Mary is disappointed to find that life in the ramshackle town of New Pass Mine is no better than it was in Australia. Before long she develops a drinking habit, and her marriage to Norm unravels. After the birth of their son Bill, Mary leaves Norm. A job as a cocktail waitress in Reno barely provides enough money to support her family. Tired of struggling to make ends meet, Mary is drawn into a life of prostitution, working as a “hotel girl” in the legal brothels catering to high rollers. While serving probation for a prostitution arrest, Mary develops a relationship with an ex-con named Lonnie, and they begin a new life in Gabbs, Nevada. Despite her previous bad experiences with men, Mary weds Lonnie and settles down as a housewife. Though the couple try to carve out a new life for themselves by honesty and hard work, they get drawn back into a life of crime and are arrested while transporting stolen goods. The INS has been tracking Mary and her Australian-born son, and now she and Alan are deported, while her younger son Bill stays in America. In Australia, Mary resumes her career as a prostitute near an American military base, hoping to save enough money to return to the States. She and Alan get as far as Jamaica, where she finds work in a high-class Kingston brothel, one of several owned and operated by a man named Raul. Raul’s father is the liaison between Batista and the “families,” and Raul serves as the Jamaican link in a circle which involves shipping illegal drugs from South America to the East Coast. When Raul sees Mary for the first time, he is immediately taken by her beauty and poise, and soon she becomes his lady. Mary truly loves him; finding in his eyes an inherent honesty and kindness. Mary and Alan, who is now fifteen years old, are pampered by Raul. Soon, however, Mary again begins to drink and indulge in drugs, drawing attention from the “family” and local authorities. Raul allows Mary and Alan to be deported to England to satisfy the authorities, but they don’t stay there long. With Mary acting as courier for the organization, they travel around the U.S., always just ahead of the INS. After being reunited with Bill, she leaves her sons with Norman and turns herself in to the INS. Shortly afterward, a bill is passed giving Alan and others like him relief of deportation. Several years later, Alan is reunited with his mother and returns to Jamaica. As courier, Mary returns to the U.S. often to visit Bill and facilitate deals with the other families that help increase Raul’s wealth and power. Alan eventually takes over the courier position from his mother. After graduating from high school, he learns more about the business of the organization and attends university in New York. When Raul is nearly killed by a hit man, he asks Alan to take over the operations entirely and eliminate both the assassin and the one who hired him. Though he feels intimidated by the responsibility, Alan steps into the role for which he has been groomed. Under Alan’s direction, the assassin and the drug dealer who hired him are caught and killed. Alan then turns his attention to the descendant of Jack Carrigan, the man who betrayed his grandmother Winifred and stole the Mclean family business so long ago. Using the extensive resources now available to them, he and his mother unearth some dark secrets about Jack’s grandson Jason, a member of parliament who now owns the successful cheese business that once belonged to the McLean’s. Jason is captured and taken out on a boat, where Alan presents him with the evidence that will destroy him. After some painful persuasion, Jason agrees to sign over the factory to the remaining Mclean family. The Mclean family honor is restored, and Alan is sure that his grandmother Winifred would be proud of her grandson.