"WHAT cruel twist of tectonic irony caused the deepest scar on the earth's surface across the face of that continent that would also suffer the most appalling of human tragedies?" So begins a narrative set against the backdrop of the timeless mountain called in Zulu uKhahlamba, "the Barrier of Spears." Yet the story is not uniquely South African; it is not about apartheid, or about Blacks, or Whites. Rather, it is about the countless 'gray' people, ordinary individuals who become trapped in the consummation of historical inevitabilities that are neither of their doing, nor of their choosing. In a tragic series of events two friends will discover what sacrifices are exacted from those who would dwell in the no man's land of the summit, where fog often obscures the vision and deprivation dulls the senses until it becomes all too easy to drift into hostile territory or stumble into the jaws of the precipice. But they will also learn that barriers are not always what they seem. In that hauntingly beautiful land it is never merely about survival, but about the things that make it truly worthwhile, such as friendship, loyalty, and honor, regardless of the price.