A complex, insightful and gripping novel. Emma Taupere returns to Auckland from Shanghai, where her training as a painter has made her a copyist of incredible skill. Now, Siaki, her ambitious and manipulative ex-boyfriend, has recruited her as a forger, shutting Emma away in a borrowed apartment on Princes Wharf. Emma works day and night copying one of the most valuable Goldie paintings in the Auckland Museum until a rash act by her damaged young cousin, Ani, exposes her to danger, and Emma has no choice but to flee up the Hibiscus Coast.