New Zealand, April 1890. On a cold grey autumn day, eleven-year-old David Campbell finds himself shipwrecked, orphaned and traumatized on the wild, wet west coast of the North Island.

He is taken under the wing of a kindly widow on her rugged, remote farm in the back blocks of northern Taranaki, where, in spite of the hard daily slog and the isolation of their tiny settlement of Wairata, he thrives and grows into a strong and gentle young man, finds friendship, belonging, and love, and settles down to farm the land.

But war has raised its ugly head in the British Empire, and the young man is dragged unwittingly into the Boer War in South Africa, and all of their lives will be forever changed.