The series was about the Home Children, the migration scheme which saw over 100,000 British children sent to Commonwealth realms such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. The Leaving of Liverpool follows two children—Lily and Bert—who meet at the Star of the Sea Orphanage in Liverpool, England in the 1950s. They are transported to Australia, where they are placed in a labour camp, and later forced to work at a sheep station.