After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged & twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced & summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns & retreats to his daughter Lucys isolated smallholding.
For a time, his daughters influence & the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He & Lucy become victims of a savage & disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship.