The Piano

Mute Scottish pianist Ada McGrath arrives in colonial New Zealand with daughter Flora for an arranged marriage to landowner Alisdair Stewart. When he leaves her piano on the beach, neighbor George Baines acquires it and proposes a charged arrangement for its return.

Michael Nyman's piano theme, black clothing, wet forest, Māori community, finger movement, and the instrument's physical weight transform expression into contested property. Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel make looking and bargaining unstable.