In 1965, in South Africa, an Afrikaner teen sets out in search of his father while a Zulu hunter returns home to his four-year old son. The encounter between the fathers scars the sons in different ways and incites an act of revenge that will haunt them both forever. In 1993, in Banner, Texas, three men die in a seemingly unrelated robbery.
In 1996, Banner is visited by an extraordinary man from South Africa seeking the truth behind a nightmare that has haunted him since child-hood. His quest disrupts the placid lives of Professor Cholly Bracker and wife, Kate, and draws them into a perilous intrigue. When they discover a link between the visitor's quest and the death of Cholly's brother--one of those who died in 1993--their interest becomes deeply personal.
Given reason to suspect Banner's most influential citizen in a decades-old conspiracy that has already claimed more than twenty lives, they discover that pursuing the truth may have put their own lives in jeopardy. Seeking evidence to protect themselves, Cholly and Kate are forced to take dangerous risks and in doing so they learn there is much more to the conspiracy than a legacy of hate. Before they can act on their discoveries, the Brackers learn the "whole truth" is even more shocking than what they had come to believe.