In Australia, five children pursue horse thieves through the mountains.
Tom Sullivan, a young Pakeha journalist researching a series of exploitative, tabloid articles on "the" Maori people becomes a casual labourer on a Mahia Peninsular farm. The emotional liaison he forms with Rawi, a young Maori woman exposes the racism engendered by the particular social attitudes and expectations of that time.
Parents veto the romance of two high-school students, forcing them to meet in secret.
