Set in 1970's South Africa, this fast-paced novel explores the impact of apartheid on the growing friendship between Victoria, a 15 year old white girl, and Maswe, a black teenager, the son of the family's servant, Seraphina. In this powerful and gripping story of courage and sacrifice, Victoria risks her life to shelter Maswe when he is badly beaten for his political activism and is drawn into his struggle against the police state that eventually takes his life - in circumstances recalling the death of Steve Biko. When her immediate family flee South Africa, Victoria chooses to return and find ways of continuing the struggle against the brutal regime.