1859. A young Māori woman, Mary Stevens, arrives in Whitby after a 73 day journey from New Zealand only to discover that the man she was to meet is dead.

Trapped without prospects in an unfamiliar, hostile environment Mary is obliged to accept work as a governess for Sir Nathaniel Cole, a local landowner with a vast fortune made as a South Seas whaler. But when Mary moves into Cole’s grand country house, she gradually discovers he is an obsessive, fetishistic collector of Māori cultural artefacts and she begins to uncover the full, horrific truth of her colonial heritage.

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