George Turner is a popular columnist for a top-selling Sydney newspaper, writing a weekly column that he insists must be exactly 800 words. After his wife dies, he buys (over the internet and unseen) a new home in a (fictional) small New Zealand seaside town called Weld, where his parents took him on holiday as a child. He then has to tell his two teenage children, Shay and Arlo. But the colorful and curious locals in Weld ensure Turner's dream of a fresh start does not go exactly to plan.