Nineteenth century, New Zealand. The gold rush has already started when politician Alistair Lauderback finds an unconscious woman, an unconscious Maori man and a corpse in a remote house in 1866. Lauderback takes the woman to the city where she is arrested for opium use. Meanwhile, the body is identified and prison guard George Shepard begins a murder investigation. Nine months earlier in 1865, the young and promising Anna Wetherell arrives in New Zealand. After a romantic first meeting, she agrees to get to know her fellow passenger Emery Staines better, but manipulative fortune-teller Lydia Wells has other plans. .