Dione Chard

Coming of age as an Indigenous woman on the South Pacific Islands is a process full of change. Every island may be different but they are connected by a shared history. Everywhere she goes, Vai is someone else, and yet she remains connected to her roots.

In a cold and remote landscape, two strangers struggle to repair their broken pasts. A young man is on parole after serving time for attempting to murder the man who killed his girlfriend in a hit and run. A woman is released from a psychiatric facility far from her homeland. These two damaged strangers cross paths in the mountains in winter and fall into a complex intimate relationship, putting to the test their capacity to trust and heal.

Expectant parents become prime suspects in the disappearance of a pregnant woman who was last seen at their garage sale. Model citizen David Rose runs a garden center and is a devoted house-father. Like his wife Ivy, who suffered two stillbirths, their new neighbor Melinda is near to giving birth. Just after David showed her around in the Rose home, Melinda goes missing. Although no corpse is found, just circumstantial evidence more likely to be planted then stupidly left behind, police detective Blanchard treats David as his sole suspect, soon arrested, even after nosy neighbor Bindel is knocked down while David is in jail. School buddy Theo does his best to counsel the couple, yet Ivy doubts her husband's innocence just because of indications he may have had an affair with Melinda since high-school, and starts snooping with her best friend Jody. The worst crime is still being hatched.