Tamihana Mahana is the gruff, religious, and unyielding head of a multi-generational family. They farm a vast tract of land that Mahana scrabbled for years to clear and claim. Now prosperous, and a respected member of a community where Maori peacefully coexist with Pakeha (white settlers), Mahana controls his growing family through both fear and love. But Simeon, Mahana's educated 14-year-old grandson, is equally strong-willed, and when he clashes with Mahana, the old man banishes Simeon's strand of the family from the property. Ramona, the matriarch, defies her husband by providing Simeon's family with a ramshackle house, and this gesture is just the beginning of a war for independence within the family.
