One man's journey through the horror of war, capture and incarceration, Michiharu Shinya struggles with the ultimate crime against Japan: To die is honour; to live is to cease to exist.

Sent as a prisoner-of-war to New Zealand, Shinya arrives to a camp seething with discontent. He confronts life and death and is changed forever.

"While waiting for the train, my eyes lit on a sign FEATHERSTON... this out-of-the-way country town... who had ever heard of it? The fact that during the Second World War there had been a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, might become no more than a tale of the past handed down by a few people. But this small town had brought a decisive change in my life, making it a place I would never forget."