Although the Maori have fared perhaps the best of all the indigenous peoples who have had their homeland overrun by Europeans, many of their ancient cultural artifacts were stolen in the early years of colonization and were shipped all over the world. In this story, an old Maori woman remembers the story of some carvings which were stolen in this fashion and is campaigning for them to be returned. At the same time, a Maori writer visiting Berlin feels something which makes him feels that his ancestors are present with him in the German city. He eventually tracks down the source of these feelings in the form of the carvings, which are being kept in a museum. The writer and his uncle, who is also in the city, band together with others to liberate the carvings and return these beacons for the ancestral spirits to their proper home.