Keri Hulme's novel follows three damaged people of mixed European and Maori heritage who find each other on New Zealand's South Island and form an unlikely family. Kerewin Holmes is a painter who has withdrawn from human connection after losing her creative powers, living alone in a tower she built from inheritance money. She encounters Simon, a mute child found shipwrecked, who attaches himself to her despite her resistance. Simon's foster father Joe loves the boy desperately but beats him violently, trapped in cycles of abuse he cannot control. The three form a triangle of need and violence, unable to live with each other or apart. Hulme draws on Maori myth and spirituality throughout, grounding the story in the landscape and traditions of New Zealand's indigenous people. The novel's prose is experimental, mixing poetry, prose, and visual elements, reflecting the fragmented consciousnesses of its characters. Hulme explores how trauma transmits across generations and how healing might become possible through connection to land and culture. The book won the Booker Prize in 1985, introducing international readers to a distinctive voice in New Zealand literature and expanding the novel's formal possibilities for incorporating indigenous worldviews.