Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd arrives in Brokenwood on assignment to investigate a murder. In a town where animosities run deep and memories are long, he soon learns that gossip is the local currency.

An experienced officer with a 1971 "classic" car, a collection of country music cassettes and an indeterminate number of ex-wives, the new woman in Shepherd's life is his assistant, Detective Kristin Sims, a by-the-book investigator, who quickly has to get used to his unique and quirky ways.

These seven series are filmed amid the beautiful landscape of New Zealand's North Island, a place where beauty is everywhere to be seen, but there lurks beneath a dark undercurrent and an alarming death rate.