Sent to the Outreach Mission for Troubled Boys in the 1970s in Rhodesia, a young man has daily visits the village’s cremator, Mr. Takafakare. Mr. Takafakare is alienated from his community, as his line of work is deemed unholy. He was a failed sweet potato farmer, but turned to cremation instead. Mr. Takafakare is riddled with severe lung complications as a result of constantly breathing in fumes. His daughter, Madota, is mute and takes a liking to the young man at the mission. The young man immerses himself in the stories told by the women who gather water. Their stories reveal the legends of creation and their ancestors. The young man lives near the leaders of the mission, the Very Reverend and his wife, Mrs. Philips. The Very Reverend became disheartened after the mission lost its contract with the Prisons Department. Since then, his wife handles nearly every aspect of the declining mission. She sold the remaining artifacts and oversaw the departure of the boys who attended, any belongings, horses, and now the trailer, which used to cart the horses. The last horse from the mission was found dead shortly before. The young man visits the cremation of the horse, where he meets Mr. Takafakare and his daughter. They begin to see one another daily; the girl listens to him speak, read, and tell stories. He reads from volumes of Winston Churchill's The History of the English-Speaking Peoples. She fetches her father a plant to help ease his lungs and bloody coughs, and the young man often accompanies her. The Very Reverend and Mrs. Philips make plan s to leave. One night, the young man awakens to his little cot on fire, as the Very Reverend had set it aflame. With his court sentence expired, the young man continues his daily routine of seeing Madota. Mr. Takafakare does not approve of their frequent time spent together. The young man is banished from his house, and takes the volume of books. He encounters the voices of the women as they return from the river, and listens to them tell one another the lore of their land.