Ranging back and forth between satire, metaphor and stark realism, Ngugi unfolds a tangible landscape both beautiful and horrfying, as tribalism and village life are manipulated in the name of progress by the cynical bureaucrats.

Michael Owoyemi is about to close a multi-million dollar business deal on behalf of his demanding employer. On the Monday morning scheduled for the closure of the deal, Biola Owoyemi, his usually reserved wife, physically restrains him from leaving their Ibadan home, insisting that he must stay at home to protect her and their first and only child, their two-month old son, from unnamed forces keen on snatching their child away from them.