Wanjiru Tatton is surviving with her mother and two sisters in a grass hut on the outskirts of a boys' high school in upcountry Kenya. She is infatuated with an American teacher at the school and has an intense on-again, off-again affair that leaves her with two sons, whose American father is forced to leave Kenya. Wanjiru's sons Muturi and Mumera grow up in a tribalistic culture feeling both unique and out of place. Wanjiru does what she feels is necessary to get the best for her children.