It is no easy task to adopt a child, especially across different races, nor is it easy to be adopted. Jake and Nkanyiso have to work much harder than either of them probably expected to become a family of two. Just as they are becoming settled after some trials, Nkanyiso informs his adopted father that a male teacher has been sexually harassing him at school. Jake does his best to protect his adopted son, but neither of them is really prepared for the onslaught when Jake complains to the school. Each of them has to deal with the other's different world view. Jake's respect for Zulu customs does not extend to funding Nkanyiso's mother's training to become an isangoma; money is too tight. Nkanyiso wants to believe that no spirit can harm him, as Jake says; but the dark sorcerer hounds him continually, and he starts to despair. It is a story of bad things happening to ordinary people. An adopted father and an adopted son against the background of a country still coming to terms with democracy.