In 1897, Pieter Rijken is a young Dutch Calvinist schoolteacher who wants to be a good man, but he thinks it may be impossible. After going too far with one of his students, he is forced to flee to Southern Africa. On the way there he meets Bertram Hugin, a happy-go-lucky German with a knack for getting Pieter into trouble. Once there, Pieter meets Jaap and his daughter, Dien, mixed-race Africans who challenge everything the young man believes in—and especially Pieter himself. Along the way, all of them must overcome violence, rape, and betrayal if they are to achieve their dreams. Finally, there is Anke Gouw, a Boer farm girl who is, perhaps, too much in a hurry, at least for Pieter. The Boer War, from its beginning at the Siege of Mafeking to the Battle of Moedwil, near the end, overtakes them all. It turns out that in love and war, nothing is what it seems at first. This historical novel tells the story of Pieter, a teacher on the run who finds himself in the midst of the Boer War, finding trouble from Cape Town's brothels to English firing squads.