In the near future, South Africa and China are world superpowers after the US and Iran have devastated each other with nuclear war. The South African leader, Dlamini, is intent on besting the Chinese in their new theatre of contention: a space race. They are recovering old US spacecrafts scattered around the edge of the Solar System when the South African spacecraft crashes into a 'barrier' at the edge of the galaxy. Dlamini assigns Masemola, the head of the space program, the task of breaking this barrier apart. The science team in charge of this demolition is surprised to see a white mist leaking through the barrier; they receive a 'message' from within it saying that the barrier guards the entrance to the Spirit Realm, where no one is welcome. Things begin to go wrong within South Africa after that. The same mist appears, and people begin to spontaneously combust. The fires cannot be put out, and no trace evidence is left behind. The South African government busies itself trying to 'disappear' the witnesses of such incidents. The combustions seem to be limited within the borders of the country, so Dlamini tries to contain the information, but a veteran of the South African Civil War manages to defect and divulge all classified data in an interview with the Mail and Guardian, a news agency covering the rivalry between China and South Africa. Back in South Africa, Dlamini covers up the inexplicable deaths by saying that the dead people 'defected to China.' Eventually, he decides to send a ship armed with a nuclear warhead into the Spiritual Realm and destroy it. The burnings stop, but the popular consensus is that South Africa has killed God. While the politicians laugh at this notion, Masemola had expressed his discomfort before this action by acknowledging that something was wrong - Dlamini placed him on leave without pay. At his return, he asks for a transfer to the foreign office, suggesting to Dlamini that their space race was a waste of money and that they can use their resources to start a new race - improving living conditions around the world and proving that their reach and image is better than China's. Dlamini approves of this idea and tells him that if the old Minister of Foreign Affairs hasn't 'defected' - i.e., burnt to death - he's fired.