Minna is thrown off-kilter when her long-estranged sister, Frida, returns to Rainbow's End. Frida has come to launch the second edition of her novel, The Orchid, a work based on her experiences of growing up in Rainbow's End. There has been a long and bitter estrangement between the sisters over the book and their past. The launch coincides with the anniversary of the Orchis Fryberg Gold, an orchid discovered by Minna and Frida's father. It has been the calling card for a park established by their father, a park that is now struggling from the effects of the drought. Holly's favourite trees are dying and she thinks the Council is neglecting them and Minna is giving up too easily. Holly sets about trying to save the trees but in the process both she and Minna discover that it's all too easy to waste one's life living in the past. Meanwhile, Nick moves into Louisa's shack and the couple discover the art of negotiating space and living together.