Sydney John Kay

Esther and her sister Jennifer have just taken a remote country cottage. But there is strange gossip about the previous occupants.

Parents veto the romance of two high-school students, forcing them to meet in secret.

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.

In Australia, five children pursue horse thieves through the mountains.