After the long voyage from Scotland, Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) and daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) are camped on a New Zealand beach, in a tent made from Ada’s skirt hoops.

Alone in their bedroom, Ada (Holly Hunter) tells her daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) a story about her real father.

Flora (Anna Paquin) and the Maori children play a sexually suggestive game amongst the trees, watched by the Maori women. Mr Stewart (Sam Neill) stops Flora, telling her never to behave that way.