It is 1853. Widowed Lydia Boulcott has remarried, hoping to escape her shameful past. An isolated new life in the kauri forests of New Zealand's Far North offers the chance of a respectable future for her and her five-year-old daughter, Hannah. To her dismay, Lydia discovers that one of her few neighbours is none other than ambitious Eliza Noakes - someone from her past who has the power to reveal her guilty secrets to the world. But, despite Lydia's best efforts, fate constantly throws them together - Inspired by the intertwined lives of two real women, and set against the fast-changing and challenging world of remote pioneer New Zealand, award-winning writer Joanna Orwin's superbly written new novel tells a gripping and touching story of struggle, love and unlikely friendship.