A mute Scottish widow travels to New Zealand with her daughter, and enters into a loveless arranged marriage. Her one means of self-expression is her piano, which her husband sells to a gruff settler who has adopted Maori culture. He allows her to play the instrument, and through their shared love of music, a passionate affair develops. Period drama, starring Oscar-winners Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin. With Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill.

When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.