New Zealand, fertile and undeveloped, was a place where rigid class distinctions could be forgotten, where the most eligible and most sought-after bachelor in Wellington proposed to a servant girl because he admired the arrogant slimness of her body and the spirit that made her confident she would be a good wife to him, although she would not pretend she was in love. So it was that Briar went to live with Saul Whitmore in his beautiful house in the heart of Maori county