A group of women at a specific period in the history of Southern Africa find their family life under the pressures of capitalist modernity and apartheid.

These ordinary, 'private' stories are anchored to the more powerful public stories of Penelope of ancient Greek mythology, who waited eighteen years while her husband Odysseus was away, and Winnie Mandela who waited for twenty-seven years.

The life story of Winnie Mandela remains one of the great unfolding dramas of our times; a tale of triumphs and tragedies that is only just beginning to be examined.