The Shopkeeper lives in Raituma, a quiet New Zealand village. This is disrupted the day the circus arrives in the field opposite the shop. When a performer flirts with the Shopkeeper, and then steals from him, he vows to forget about her. The next year she comes back with the circus and he is drawn towards her again.
He can't tell if she feels the same, but she makes it clear that Raituma is too boring for her and that to be together, he will have to come with her. He has never been impulsive and doesn't know how to do anything else except run a shop. He worries that if he leaves his life behind and follows her around the world she would lose interest in him.
Instead, he fights to keep the circus coming back every year, subsequently changing both the success of the shop and Raituma.