One mild summer evening in rural New Zealand the lives of Carla Reid, a middle-aged farmer's wife, and Ben Toroa, an illiterate teen, brutally collide. Neither will be the same again, their futures forever linked. Many years after their first encounter, Carla and Ben's lives once more intersect, again with astonishing consequences.

On the night that Carla Reid plans on celebrating her wedding anniversary with her husband Kevin and their grown son Jack, their New Zealand farmstead has never felt more like home. But when Ben Toroa and another aspiring gang member brutally force their way into the house with robbery and more on their minds the night and the rest of both their lives take a radically different direction. As Carla struggles to come to terms with the aftermath and bereavement of different kinds, and Ben faces the consequences in prison, their stories continue to interweave.