Joseph Leonard is a celebrated New Zealand poet – with a past. In 1936, he goes to Rome to improve his Italian. In 1951, at home in Auckland, he employs a young graduate, Dan Henley, to sort out his papers. Then, after years of silence, in 1972, he and Dan meet again in the Jewish section of Waikumete Cemetery.
Events echo back and forward in time and have devastating repercussions. They force him to confront unformed identities – gay and Jewish - and to acknowledge the weight of history.