It's been seven years since Marama's people fled their Pacific island home and built a new life in Kāingatipu, Aotearoa (NZ). Starman and Kai, her man and son, will return to fulfil a prophecy. Marama is pregnant. She can't risk the baby or abandon her daughter and duties to travel with them.

While foraging, the women encounter unknown warriors seeking a foreign woman to give their chief a son. Marama's village is undefended. She lures the invaders away to save her people and allows the party leader, Rongo, to capture her.

Rongo's chief, Rangi, is pleased when Marama arrives in Rotowhā, and she seduces him. Marama cuckolds him into believing her child is his. The ancestors of Rotowhā have diverted Marama to their village with a purpose. Women have no status there, but Marama teaches them healing and reconnects them to Papatūānuku - the Earth Mother. Rangi's first love, Roimata, hates Marama on sight.

Discontent grows with Rangi's arrogance, abuse and his desire for bloodshed. To challenge Rangi is a death sentence, so his people suffocate under a blanket of fear. Desperate, Marama and the tohunga (spiritual leader) Piri risk their lives and form a covert alliance. Together, they uncover a complex web of lies, deception, greed and dark magic - in the past and present.

The future twists as the ancestors proffer solutions and a moral dilemma that challenges Piri and Marama's belief in the sanctity of life. When Atarangi, a weaver of malicious deeds, arrives in Rotowhā, events spiral out of control.