IExcitement is rare in the small town of Marumaru, New Zealand. So when, a young Maori man arrives on the morning train one day in 1903, announcing the imminent visit of a famous strongman, the entire town turns out to greet him, save one. Colton Kemp, a department store window-dresser, is at home, watching his beloved wife die in premature childbirth. Tormented by grief, he hatches a plan to make his name and thwart his professional rival, the silent and gifted Carpenter: over the next sixteen-years, he will raise his newborn twins in secrecy and isolation, to become human mannequins in the world's most lifelike window display.