Each of these three plays takes as its kernel a news story from the past that captured the imagination of New Zealanders. In Horseplay novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson and poet James K. Baxter meet and share the stage with the rear end of a horse, while in Flipside four sailors confront the elements for 119 days, adrift on the overturned boat Rose-Noëlle. Finally, Trick of the Light revisits the infamous Crewe murders when a brother and sister bring their mother's ashes to a motel room that hasn't been opened in three decades.