Wanting to be free to follow her own life path, a naive young Australian girl travels to London on a cruise ship in search of true love but soon discovers that her interfering mother, who has unexpectedly come along for the ride, is not the only controlling person she will need to overcome before she can find what it is she's been searching for.

SYNOPSIS:

Joy is a naïve Australian girl growing up in late 1960’s Melbourne. Her old-fashioned and interfering mother has led Joy to believe that marriage is where she will find her happiness. Joy is afraid that unless this happens by the time she is 21 she will be officially an old maid.

Joy’s quest for true love constantly eludes her. She has no interest in her mother’s chosen suitor for her: a good church-going lad and the local bank manager, Eric McKenzie, whose passion for interest rates and the Seekers greatest hits have killed any passion Joy could have for him.

To make matters worse for Joy her 'know it all' girlfriend and mentor, Fay marries her ideal man.

Joy wants to study art but her controlling mother enrols her at secretarial college. Only her father and playful grandmother understand her deep desire to be an artist.

Joy seeks solace in music, drugs and alcohol.

By the time Joy reaches 21 she has given up on ever finding happiness in love and decides to marry Eric but her outspoken girlfriend Fay saves the day and stops the wedding.

Fay flies to London to live with her new British husband and Joy decides to follow her over there on an ocean liner. Unfortunately for Joy her controlling mother unexpectedly turns up for the ride.

Not long after their arrival, Joy's mother meets a new man. She marries him and later returns to Australia.

At last free of her controlling mother, Joy begins a relationship with a handsome London interior designer, Jeremy Collins. But it seems she has swapped one controlling person for another.

Jeremy hires her as his PA and before long they are living together and he is busily molding Joy into his perfect woman. Although initially smitten with Jeremy, Joy soon finds his controlling ways and obsessive compulsive behavior impossible to live with and their relationship is over.

Now thoroughly disillusioned with love, she decides her happiness must lie in finding the right career and she begins a job as a scenic artist. Her career takes off and she buys her own apartment.

Joy is continually haunted by a strange dream of a gnarled old tree that seems to hold some spiritual significance for her. Meanwhile Joy's close friend Fay is slipping into a depression. Fay gives up her job and moves in with Joy and spends all her time drinking, snorting cocaine and telling Joy how to run her life.

To make things even worse for Joy her career has taken a turn for the worse when a new man takes over the office who hates her work and treats her like a secretary.

It’s through a strange meeting with a famous Polish artist that Joy discovers the deep and lasting significance behind her repetitive dreams of the Banyan Tree. This leads her to the realization of what it is she has always been searching for.