New Zealand 1928. When Wilhelm Erdinger arrives in the sleepy village of Falters Mill claiming to want nothing more than to be left alone to pursue a self-sufficient life the locals are more than happy to oblige. Against all expectations his life flourishes and he discovers both unexpected friendship and love. But as war marches ever closer it is not the locals' growing antipathy against the German in their midst that threatens to bring his tenuous happiness crashing down but a dark secret from his past.