As detention center counselor and refugee advocate Anne Hilton sets off on a 300km silent walk with a small group of strangers, from the Villawood Asylum Seeker Detention Centre in Sydney to Parliament House in Canberra, Stop the Boats looks at the plight of asylum seekers who arrive by boat on Australian shores. Anne Hilton’s assignment as a counselor at the Northern Territory Detention Centre left a devastating impact. Disillusioned and shamed by the conditions in which the detention center held asylum seekers, Anne left determined to do something to bring their plight to national attention. Her way was a nine day 300 km silent walk she called the Walk for the Silent Many. Anchored by the walk, Stop the Boats tells the story of asylum seekers in Australia, of a policy that challenges their very definition and reason, of a national conversation that wonders how Australia got to this point so far removed from the international convention for refugees it signed in 1954. As Anne and her group of strangers walk through the Australian landscape on the nine day journey, asylum seekers and refugees recount their experiences of asylum seeking, of their flights from war and about the twilight zone of statelessness. Meanwhile some of the voices that have influenced this national discussion on asylum seekers, reflect on how Australia reached this flash point and where it will go from here.