Another mystery awaits Vera and Tolliver in British East Africa. Justin Tolliver and his tribal lieutenant Kwai Libazo are still smarting from the dreadful events that ended their work on the police force a year ago. Justin and his wife, Vera, are establishing their farm in Ngong. Kwai and his baby daughter are living on the property, but tension still exists between the two men. One beautiful Sunday morning, a passing stranger discovers a dead body on the road that leads to their home. A Kukuyu man has been shot in the back. Vera and Tolliver soon learn that the dead man is Kwai’s half-brother. When Kwai begins to investigate his brother’s death, complications pile up.

As word of the crime leaks out, Kwai’s search for the murderer inflames the underlying tensions between and among the various groups now inhabiting the Protectorate of British East Africa: The king’s faithful empire builders of the administration, the missionaries who largely defend the rights of the tribal people—who have lived there for millennia, and the upper-class white British who are moving in and accustomed to rule over the places they occupy.

Vera walks a tightrope, trying to help the investigation progress. Being the daughter of a missionary and the wife of an English aristocrat, she finds herself in the center of all the tension. The closer Kwai gets to securing justice for his dead brother, the wider the tension spreads. Will Justin Tolliver and Kwai Libazo be able to cooperate fully despite the emotional gap that has formed between them?