It is 1979 just outside a remote Zambian village when seventeen-year-old Chimuka meets Sara, a white woman near his school. The thirty-three-year-old mother of two and the young, nave man begin a relationship that will transform both their lives in ways they never could have imagined. As Chimuka shuns conventional African living for the dream of higher education and a liberated life, he decides to follow Sara. In the midst of a struggle for dignity and pride, he soon finds himself immersed in a maelstrom of cultural clashes, social opprobrium, and personal upheaval. Torn between the roles of lover, friend, breadwinner, and mother, Sara is also lost in her own tumultuous battles. After five years together in Zambia and Kenya, the two finally part, but loyally write hundreds of letters to each other that maintains their emotional connection despite the distance between them. Thirty years later, Chimuka convinces Sara to meet him under the shade of a fig tree and awaits the conclusion of his unforgettable odyssey from the heart of Africa into the soul of the woman he has always loved as his mother.