A gripping story of love and deception on the Otago Gold Fields of nineteenth-century New Zealand. Arrowtown, a goldfield settlement with an explosive mix of inhabitants, is the scene of an unlikely love story. Ming Yuet, a young Chinese woman seeking riches disguises herself as a male miner and comes to the goldfields, where she meets Conran, an Orcadian stonemason escaping a family tragedy. A secret love affair develops amidst suspicion, fear and hostility, culminating in an act of violence that irrevocably shatters the lives of those involved. Maxine Alterio's beautiful novel about love, forgiveness, alienation and friendship moves between past and present, homeland and adopted country, and from the living to the deceased . . .