After the death of her grandmother, Bethell moves from one family to another in the sleepy New Zealand township of Te Kano. She stays with the curt German hotelkeeper, with the fat prissy grocer and his moralistic wife, with her aunt, the town's 'bad woman.' But it is not until her father, Johnny Gow - the witch's thorn - reclaims her that she truly knows despair. Bethell's only hope of escaping her father's curse lies with the warm and loving Wi family.
