1814.Thomas Kendall, missionary, and the Ngā Puhi chief Hongi Hika each want something only the other can offer. Kendall is enamored of Māori culture and wants to know its secrets. Hongi Hika wants to extend his power with European firearms. They collaborate on the first Māori Dictionary and Grammar and take it to London to present to King George IV. Kendall ultimately deserts the church and his wife, but finds he cannot fit in the Māori world he has idealized from afar. Epic in scale, Kendall is not pallid and repressed mid- Victorian, but a Romantic, and part of the Georgian world, like some tropical Byron. Hongi Hika is a canny warrior, familiar with the advantages pākehā can bring, yet very wary of losing his mana and sovereignty. Jane, Thomas’s wife, suffers at the hand of both.
The cast can be extended by adding extra warriors, Missionaries and Court Servants.