The Unknown Zone begins with the 1965 story of fifteen-year-old Hemi Ratana who, traumatised by a humiliating incident, climbs a giant kauri on the Coromandel Peninsula in a do-or-die test of courage. High in the head branches of the kauri, Hemi finds a human skeleton. Around its neck is a key on a chain. What does the key unlock? Nearly 160 years earlier, on the West Coast of the South Island, a group of sealers from Australia is taken captive by Ngai Tahu marauders. In a desperate bid for survival one of these captives joins up with another Maori group and they all journey to the eastern Coromandel. These two stories intertwine in a powerful, gripping and passionate tale of land rights, spirituality, coming-of-age and love.