While converting a closed country school into a summer batch near Wellington, New Zealand, Steve Garnet meets neighbour, Lavina Ryland. Their friendship soon develops into a romance that hurtles them into danger and changes their lives and the life of Lavina's daughter, Cathy forever.

Grant Ryland learns about his wife's infidelity and, in a drunken rage, drugs Lavina, Cathy and Steve. He abducts them and abandons the trio on an isolated mountaintop airstrip above bush-covered ranges, at least four day's walking distance from the nearest road.

Facing an onslaught of life-threatening perils, including frostbite, raging icy rapids, and violent storms, the trio struggle to survive like twigs in a storm. Can they overcome the grave odds against them?

Join this brave trio as their strength and love is repeatedly tested and they learn what it really means to be a family.