When Sergeant Frank Hardy is drugged and taken upriver to a secret prison he searches his memory for clues to his predicament. Has his past caught up with him again, or it something more sinister? He remembers in India during to siege of Lucknow, and his time fighting the land wars. What was it he did to bring him to this place?
The town of Palmerston North is growing as more settlers arrive, many of them Scandinavian. Mette Jensen is waiting for the right time to marry, but when Sergeant Hardy disappears she is brokenhearted, until she discovers a terrible truth.
Meanwhile, a body has washed downstream from the ranges and a stranger with a familiar face has come to town in search of his brother.