The boy skilled in the art of disputation, or hoopapa, lives in Waiakea, Hilo, Hawaii. In the days of Pueonuiokona, king of Kauai, his father, Halepaki, has been killed in a riddling contest with Kalanialiiloa, the taboo chief of Kauai, whose house is almost surrounded by a fence of human bones from the victims he has defeated in this art. Kaipalaoa's mother teaches him all she knows, then his aunt, Kalenaihaleauau, wife of Kukuipahu, trains him until he is an expert. He meets Kalanialiiloa, riddles against all his champions, and defeats them. They are killed, cooked in the oven, and the flesh stripped from their bones. Thus Kaipalaoa avenges his father's death.