The fourth Children of Violence novel returns to Martha Quest in southern Africa as the war ends and her old world begins to break up. Her marriage and political circles are fading, and she feels cut off from the place she has lived in. She begins a relationship with a Polish refugee, Thomas Stern, whose past and outlook widen her sense of the world. The novel follows her growing wish to leave the colony. It is a reflective study of loneliness, political change and personal choice.