The year is 1825.

Nicolaas van der Merwe, wealthy Afrikaner farmer, living high in the mountains of the Cape, had been murdered. His slaves, led by Galant, the family's chief hand were accused of the killing.

Galant had been raised with the two sons of the house. It was not until adulthood, until the rivalry over Hester, the orphaned daughter of a tenant farmer, that their different roles, their unequal futures, were emphasized.

When the hopes of freedom from slavery were raised and then dashed, when the promises made to Galant of more equal treatment were forgotten, the explosive spiral of violence had to follow.