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.