Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, the well-known Kenyan writer, is established as an important African woman's voice. Her novel explores further aspects of the making of modern Kenya. Two women, one white and one black, brought together by fate and common experiences, reminisce about a past spanning the colonial period, the heady independence and anti-climatic post-independence days. Through the story of the widow of a colonial settler, and her African maid and companion, she deals with the conflicts between black and white, and young and old.