Sean Butler joins the B.S.A. Police in white-ruled Rhodesia on a three-year contract, intending to go home at the end of it, but finds that "He who has drunk of the waters of the Nile will return to drink again" - once an African, it is difficult to leave.White Rhodesians desperately resist ceding power to the insurgent black majority, and Sean joins the Police Anti-Terrorist Unit and SWAT.Jason Dube, a Matabele tribesman, resents the white domination of his people, but shares an interest in boxing with Sean.Marizani, Sean's loyal interpreter, driver and advisor, a Mashona, has reservations about both whites and the Matabele.Zemba, a sinister Central Intelligence Organisation operative, has never forgiven Sean for humiliating him in a boxing match.During the genocidal Gukurahundi campaign against the Matabele, which killed an estimated 20,000 civilians, Jason's sister is abducted by a ZANU 5th Brigade unit led by Zemba.Sean and Jason oppose ZANU's post-war government through a business association, while commercial farms invaded by ZANU's thugs lie fallow, the people starve and businesses are stolen recklessly by the new regime.With state-sponsored violence escalating, Jason is content to fight fire with fire, but Sean and Shirley have to decide whether they can survive in the new Zimbabwe...