A young South African man named Damon is traveling through Zimbabwe on an impulsive journey. He is dealing with feelings of loneliness and instability in his life, and he does not quite know what to do with himself, so he keeps moving. He joins a group going through Zambia to Malawi. They share a harrowing overnight train ride during which rocks are thrown through the windows and some passengers are injured. When they reach the major lake in Malawi, he is in awe of the beauty and leisure to be had there. However, his happiness is ruined when he grows irritated with the group he has fallen in with, recognizing their collective privilege. He has an outburst of rage at their complaints about the locals and the dirtiness of certain places.

He leaves the lake and meets three familiar people at the ferry who were turned away at the border when he crossed because they did not have visas. He falls in with them— Swiss twins named Alice and Jerome and a Frenchman named Christian— and they end up at a beach together higher up the lake. Damon is interested in Jerome, but the two are never alone together. Damon still feels like an outsider in their little group, and despite their friendliness, his loneliness continues. They invite him to come up to Tanzania with them, and he accepts but loses them when he is stopped at the border for not having a visa. They say their goodbyes. Later, Damon figures out that he simply needed to bribe the border official, and he makes it through and finds the group again by a stroke of luck.

They reunite, and this time, a man named Roderigo from Chile has also joined the group. They travel towards Tanzania but hear that the country is about to hold its first multi-party election in two days. Damon finds himself discontent again, afraid of having no visa at a politically unstable time and annoyed with Roderigo for his complaints. Around this time, he and Jerome are alone together for the first time, and Jerome invites him, with some urgency, to come to Switzerland. Damon does not know how to answer the invitation, and they are interrupted shortly.

The group goes up to Kenya, and this time it is Alice who invites Damon to come to Switzerland with them. He turns it down and decides to go home to South Africa. He promises to stay in touch and make the trip someday to visit them. When they leave he cries, feeling alone and loveless. He goes back to Malawi with an Englishman he met in a shop, who is smuggling expensive Afghan rugs on the trip. He makes it back to South Africa, and though he'd thought to grab a flight to Switzerland as soon as possible, it is four months until he makes it to Europe.

He writes and calls ahead, then goes to Alice and Jerome's house. Jerome is there only for the weekend, having gotten away from his military service. The family is lovely, and Damon feels comfortable with them, but Jerome is sometimes distant, and their relationship feels confusing to Damon. Jerome will only occasionally show an outburst of emotion, of potentially wanting Damon, but then act entirely detached and formal other times. Damon leaves after a couple of weeks with them, unable to stand the strange detachment between the two. He travels around Europe. He calls to tell them that he's going home once more, and they invite him to come to Switzerland one last time before he goes to South Africa, but he cannot visit again and risk the emotional divide between him and Jerome only growing.

Back in South Africa, he moves into a house three hours away from Cape Town, owned by friends from London who are not using it then. He establishes a feeling of stability, having a home to come back to at the end of the day. He finally decides to write a letter to Jerome, but it comes back a week later, with a card informing him of Jerome's death. He is shaken, and when he goes outside the familiar countryside looks as foreign as a strange country.