Set against political tumult, this psychological thriller explores the dilemmas faced by the 1960s generation of Afrikaners in South Africa. A disjointed chronology reveals the quandaries of Delport, the existentialist hero and protagonist who has lived alone deep in the African bush for nine years in hopes of evading his past. Always fearful that his nemesis, the mysterious Ritter, is out to find and kill him, Delport begins having paranoid visions as he endures days of burning sun, nights of buzzing mosquitoes, and the constant sound of inexplicable drumming. Then, when someone does arrive--a woman named Malia Domingo--Delport can't escape the feeling that she might be connected to Ritter in some way.