Nanny has saved Wai from her abusive and cruel mother and adopted Wai as her own child setting Wai free.

Jimmy and Nanny marry; they then teach Wai many things about the earth's natural environment.

Nanny also teaches Wai -The Way of Plants - A traditional Māori way of healing using plants found in the wild places of New Zealand.

While hunting for plants one day, Wai discovers an ancient bone flute in a mysterious lake in the forest. Wai is then taken deeper into the forest than she has ever been by a spirit guide and there she learns many things.

A few months later, one stormy night, a stranger arrives at Nanny's house - his leg is wounded and swollen. Near death the man spends the night under Nanny's care and a strange and uncanny destiny awaits Wai as the stranger becomes known to her.

What follows can only be gauged by Wai's curiosity and an intricate weaving of lives.