The novel opens with Mira Bunting, a 29-year-old horticulturalist and founding member of a New Zealand guerrilla gardening group called Birnam Wood. She finds out that a piece of property in a town called Thorndike has been taken off the market. She calls a local realtor to see why and gets little more information than she already knows from recent news: The town’s main road has been cut off by a landslide that killed four people, assumedly triggered by an earthquake, and as a result the economy is suffering.

Mira attempts to feel pity for the victims before quickly giving up and continuing her research. She discovers that the property was a former sheep farm and backs up to the Korowai National Park. The owner, Owen Darvish is about to be knighted for services to conservation. His successful business, Darvish Pest Control, started when he was a teenager killing rabbits. News reports emphasize the fact that his original .22 rifle and skinning knife are proudly kept in a display case in his living room, and that his wife, Jill, is the actual owner of the property, since she inherited it. Owen is joining forces with an American technology company called Autonomo that makes drones; together, they will monitor endangered New Zealand wildlife.