Walking in the Otago hills of New Zealand, Rogan Fielding stumbles across the body of a dead man - JT Nielsen. Intrigued, Rogan tries to discover more about the man, and to reconstruct the details of his life. As he does so, he is led ever more deeply not just into Nielsen's past, but the lives of the people who knew him - including neighbours, Jenny and her autistic son. And as Nielsen's story unfolds, Rogan finds himself confronted by two irreconcilable versions of the man: local hero, international villain. Which he chooses to believe seems likely to affect not only Nielsen's legacy, but Rogan's own future and happiness. Meanwhile, in the background, the memories of others who knew JT Nielsen, or whose lives he touched, hint at a man Rogan will never really know ...