Backbone, a mystery drama about Anna, a teenage orphaned
lighthouse keeper, who uses her ‘mindgarden’ to
connect to her predecessors who uncover years of lies finally
enabling the truth of Anna’s real story to emerge.
Nineteen year old Anna is a competent young woman descended
from four generations of lighthouse keepers. When Thomas, her
father suddenly dies, she is faced with decisions that affect the
future of the Island community. several others on the island.
After a no fuss burial, Anna realises being an orphan has its
advantages; as she is able to continue operating the lighthouse
on her terms.
However Anna leads a double life and has the ability to remove
herself mentally from her present world and connect through her
‘mindgarden’ to her ancestral network. She relies on this connection
to give direction and open doors to things on earth she can't always
find the answers to. Now more than ever she seems to be tapping
into this source of strength and support to help her unclear future.
JIAN (18), the son from the neighbouring cattle station on the
island, discovers EMORY(27) washed up on the main beach from across
the channel. Emory, besides having a dubious past, possesses a sharp
intellect that he begins to challenge Anna
with by questioning her methods of operating the lighthouse.
This motivates Anna to initiate a search to prove her techniques are
part of an inherited ‘keeper mantle’ accumulated the past 100 years.
However during the foraging for proof she uncovers some unwanted
truths about her parents. This new information reveals that her
father married the sister of his first wife, her being Anna’s
mother; GLORIA(53). Logbooks further reveal that Gloria was in fact
the backbone behind her fathers ‘keeper’ facade, and that to her
horror, Jian’s mother LUI(50), out of greed had been slowly poisoning
Thomas over the years to have a 'natural death' in order for her
husband HENRY(58)to finally be the keeper of Tiri. Anna knew she
had inherited her mother’s inner strength, and she was going to
need it in the fight to set the past straight.
Facing the fact that most of her life, she had been caught
in a lie, Anna unleashes her anger on the Meha family, and the
washed up intruder, who she dobs in for the Maritime police to
come and collect.
A cold awkwardness takes over a previous warm island culture.
Then to add insult to injury, a huge offshore cold front hits the
island quite unexpectedly. The massive storm wreaks havoc in the
surrounding seas and in doing so breaks the seabed power cable
from Shakespeare point to Tiritiri. Just before the natural light
completely fades, Jian takes Anna and locks her in the lighthouse
for her own protection because Lui has seen an opportunity to
sabotage the generator, so no light will be restored in the lighthouse.
Therefore, through her negligence, Anna will be reported and
removed from the island. But Lui underestimates Anna’s tenacity;
and alone in the dark lighthouse tower she connects with her
parents in her ‘mindgarden’ and their knowledge of where the
secrets lie on earth helps Anna to uncover a 10 year strategy that
Lui concocted to subtly take over their family legacy for her self.
Jian emerges as the key to realising the extent of his parents deceit and through Anna retains his sanity of the whole saga. Thomas and Gloria are posthumously acknowledged, then Anna is reinstated as the rightful Lighthouse keeper on Tirtiri. Emory returns with a clean slate and runs the lighthouse until Anna returns from a break on the mainland; of rest and recuperation; that the 19 year old deserves.
