Gat, a 30-year-old member of the Katanga Gendarmerie, the Belgian colonial police force, is sent from the newly independent Congo to South Africa with a wallet full of blood money and instructions to "Disappear." He arrives there, bearing a secret and searching for redemption.
In Cape Town he meets Petra, the 18-year-old daughter of Piet Rousseau, who heads the Bureau of State Security for the apartheid government. When Gat and Piet meet at her parent's home their interaction is chilly, for Gat makes it clear that he does not believe in apartheid. And it soon becomes clear that Piet can employ draconian measures against anyone trying to oppose the regime's separation of the races.
Gat and Petra are strongly attracted to one another. About to start university, Petra wants desperately to escape the overprotective care of her father. What better way to do this than to begin a passionate love affair with a mysterious man she hardly knows?
When Petra and Gat set off on a road trip, the battle between Piet and Gat is fully engaged, and the outcome for all three of these people remains in limbo until the novel ends.
This historical novel, based on actual events, provides a hair-rising look at the worst-of-times under the Afrikaner regime.
