A story of resilience and determination, where breathtaking triumphs in the skies are shadowed by memories too heavy to leave behind.

1928, Cape Town. Newlywed Lady Heath embarks on her most daring adventure yet: a solo biplane flight from Cape Town to London. Already a trailblazer – a world-record athlete, Britain's first woman to parachute from a plane and to earn a commercial pilot's license – she is determined to prove that women belong in aviation.

Fiercely independent, Sophie charts her 10,000-mile route using pages from a road atlas, services her own aircraft, and defies every restriction placed on women. But, as she soars over the vast continent, memories from a traumatic past resurface: her mother murdered, her father imprisoned in an Irish asylum and a childhood shaped by repression.

Having been stricken with sunstroke, crash-landing in the wilderness and nursed by local women, thwarted at every turn by the authorities and ultimately seeking help from Mussolini, she at last lands in London – heels, furs and all.

Though celebrated, Sophie realises fame cannot free her from her past. She has conquered the skies but not the shadows that follow ...