On the day she is born, Alana Pennyfarthing is left at the doorstep of an orphanage with a written note: "This child is no longer wanted." Years later her daughter Amelia Gruber, an underachieving recluse, finds herself struggling to navigate the dilemma's of being a 'poor White' in 20th Century Rhodesia and befriending a middle class black Lawyer Peter Mudondo. In the confusion of coming of age, finding her feet and trying to empathise with Peters mission to have land unlawfully taken from black people returned, Amelia discovers a family secret that is the missing piece to the puzzle of her family's existence. What she discovers may be too hard to bear.