After serving his sentence, Joe undertakes a journey north, seeking to reach a deserted beach. He ends up on a bluff above the ocean and is unable to find a way down because of the manuka and other plants that grow around. Eventually, feeling cold and depressed, he starts drinking and decides to jump. He survives the fall but breaks his arm, which soon becomes infected and bloated. Joe is becoming truly ill, but a kaumatua, or wise old man, who lives as a hermit nearby finds him and takes him back to his hut. The old man nurses Joe back to health, using plant medicines and herb concoctions. While Joe is recovering, he and the old man discuss Joe’s nightmares, in which Hana often appears and turns into a moth or begins devouring her husband’s body, starting at the privates.

After Joe recovers, the kaumatua tells him about his life and the reason he has lived alone in the wild his entire life. It turns out that the old man’s grandmother was the guardian of a very special Maori relic and foretold that her grandson would meet Joe, who is destined to become the next guardian. When the old woman dies, she orders her grandson to eat some of her flesh and live at the isolated cabin for as long as necessary.