Annemarié van Niekerk returns to South Africa from the Netherlands to pay her respects to her gentle friend Ruben after he and his mother are brutally murdered on their farm in the Eastern Cape. The visit triggers memories of journeys in her youth from the 1960s to the 1980s: from Port Elizabeth, where Annemarié grew up in a loving yet strict Afrikaner household, to Umtata, where she lectured at the university and fell in love with Denzel, a black colleague, leading to serious and ongoing conflict with her staunchly Nationalist father. It also recalls her time in Hillbrow, and later Yeoville, where she and Denzel illegally lived together, until violence tore their relationship apart. As she grapples with the violence that permeates South African society, Annemarié immerses herself in the details of the court case against the murderers of Ruben and his‑mother. Masterfully told, it poignantly interweaves the author’s personal story with some of the most pressing issues of our time.