In the early 1990s, a young student Ross Calman finds himself in the University of Canterbury library, where he discovers writings by Tamihana Te Rauparaha from the 1860s. Ross decides he will learn te reo Māori, so that one day he will be able to read the words of his ancestor himself. Thirty years later, he did just that. We get an understanding of the context He Pukapuka Tātaku i Ngā Mahi a Te Rauparaha Nui (A Record of the Life of the Great Te Rauparaha) was written in, and of Te Ao Tāwhito, the ancient Māori world that Te Rauparaha was born into.