"Blame and hate are so overrated, my friend. They deliberately draw us backwards and never let us go." The boarding house in the usually prosperous New Zealand boys' high school is failing when the figures say that it should be thriving. Something is going seriously wrong. Logan Du Rose is drafted in to solve the mystery, bringing his wife, Hana and new baby daughter with him to live at the derelict staff accommodation. For him it is a welcome distraction, which stops him having to deal with the chaos of his mother's horrific suicide and the misery it has unleashed on his whole whanau. Hana Du Rose is struggling. New motherhood at forty-five is not quite what she expected and she is feeling disappointed in herself. The man who hunted her previously is now behind bars, but another danger is getting ready to stretch its wicked fingers over her and make her life unbearable. Who is the handsome man in the black Mercedes and why does he seem intent on punishing Hana? Why is it that she can't ask her husband for help this time? Just as Hana's circumstances become more and more untenable, the arrival of her nephew complicates matters further and drives an even bigger wedge between her jealous, eldest son, Bodie and the strong, Maori Du Rose family which Hana has chosen to belong to. With the absence of a female figurehead, the Du Rose empire is flailing and tension threatens to undo the work of generations. Until Hana steps up and shows that she bears the hallmark of the new Du Rose Matriarch.