When recording artist Drew Sinclair boards a flight to New Zealand, she isn’t chasing adventure. She’s disappearing. A quiet house-sit in the shadow of Aoraki is supposed to be temporary: wide skies, cold nights, and enough distance to breathe again without anyone asking who she is or what happened.

But isolation doesn’t last long in the Mackenzie Basin. Especially not when the neighbor is Tama King, an intimidatingly fine, relentlessly disciplined senior officer with the Department of Conservation (DOC) whose life revolves around rescues, responsibility, and staying in control. Tama doesn’t do distractions. Drew doesn’t do attachments. Their agreement is simple: keep it light, keep it clean, and don’t make it complicated.

Except New Zealand has a way of turning “simple” into something real.