The plot might go something like this: It is 2003.
The Court of Appeal delivers a judgement on a long-running case: whether or not the nature and extent of Maori customary rights and title to the foreshore and seabed can be considered by the Maori Land Court.
In its judgement, the Court of Appeal says it can.
The political party in power (let's call it Labour) - under pressure from public opinion to protect access to the great Kiwi birthright, the beaches, and mindful of the potential ramifications of a precedent-setting case which cedes sovereignty to the foreshore and seabed, the oil, the minerals and anything else of value it might contain - is duly spooked.
It changes the law to state more clearly a common presumption - the foreshore and seabed belong to the Crown and thus to all the country's citizens.
Elements within Maoridom are deeply affronted and alienated from their traditional ally, Labour.
They form a new party to fight for their day in court.
Their bitterness and antipathy to Labour knows no bounds.
Six years pass and in an unprecedented about-face, Maori have joined forces with their traditional political foes - OK, let's call them National - to become part of the Government.
The price of allegiance is the promise of a review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.
Strategists within National know that if the party can come to some acceptable compromise with Maori over this legislation they will seal the alliance and make themselves the natural party of government for decades to come.
The question is, just how much are they prepared to give away to make it happen, and just how tolerant of largesse on National's part will the voting public prove to be?
The citizens of this country may not have to wait too long to find out.
This week as part of the Maori Party's confidence and supply agreement with the Government, the promised ministerial review panel on the Foreshore and Seabed Act began its series of meetings around the country with a hui in Bluff on Monday, followed by Christchurch on Tuesday and Wellington on Wednesday.
The hui in Bluff immediately raised the stakes.
Te Tai Tonga MP Rahui Katene said the Maori Party wanted the controversial Act repealed and new legislation to take its place which would recognise the right of Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi to the foreshore and seabed - and a stake in any future mineral claim.
The move would "future-proof" Maori for generations to come, she said.
What she didn't add, of course, is that "future-proofing" Maori to the extent of relinquishing a significant share of potential mineral riches, will conversely impoverish other potential beneficiaries - those other sectors of New Zealand society that might stand to gain by a more widespread distribution of revenues and royalties arising out of the discovery of natural resources.
And there is the rub.
Just how far and by how much are Maori to be favoured in this matter for possible electoral advantage?
Is the foreshore and seabed and any riches it might contain - beyond the fisheries, much of which have already been given through treaty settlements - to become the future site of numerous Waitangi Tribunal claims?
Just when there appeared to be an end in sight to the bickering, and the self-perpetuating posturing of the grievance industry, with both National and Labour wanting to establish limits, the spectre arises of an entirely new chapter.
Never mind the beaches: that is the easy part of the equation - comparatively easy to cede, or relatively simple to protect full public access rights.
The hard part is what cannot at this moment be foreseen - the existence of precious minerals or rich deposits of fuel or oil reserves.
The Labour Party may well have acted precipitously in its hasty reaction to the Court of Appeal decision, and in its shepherding through of an Act that it evidently now regrets - as its desire for a bipartisan approach to the current review indicates - but it sensed, when the issue arose, that the plot had hidden twists and turns.
National may yet discover that - to its own electoral discomfort.
