Adrian Lockheart i a psychologist escaping his life in England. In the dirt and dust of Freetown he befriends a young surgeon, Kai Mansaray, and begins to build a new life as Kai makes plans to leave. In the hospital Adrian encounters an elderly man, Elias Cole, whose memories are recorded in notebooks and reveal an obsession with Saffia – a woman he loved – and Julius, her fiery husband. In a country torn apart by repression and war, four individual lives collide in a story about friendship, understanding, absolution and the indelible effects of the past…