Duty and love collide in a remote town on the arid plains of central South Africa.
Cathleen Harrington leaves Ireland in 1919 to travel to South Africa and marry the fiancé she has not seen for 5 years. Isolated and estranged, she finds solace in the friendship of her housemaid’s daughter, Ada. Under Cathleen’s teaching, Ada grows into an accomplished pianist, and a reader who cannot resist turning the pages of Cathleen’s diary, discovering the secrets she sought to hide.
When Ada is compromised and finds she is expecting a coloured child, she flees, determined to spare Cathleen the knowledge of her betrayal. But Cathleen still believes in Ada, and risks the constraints of apartheid to search for her and persuade her to return. Beyond the cruelty of their divided country, they nurture an unlikely friendship through love, hope - and finally, redemption.
An epic journey. An uncertain love. An enduring friendship.