Johannesburg is in a state of euphoria two years after the first democratic elections. Here Thandeka, a young black journalist, lives in fear of her country’s past. She’s so troubled that she can’t work, and her relationship with Mangi, her 13-year-old, profoundly deaf daughter, goes from bad to worse.
Then, one day Me’Tau, an elderly woman, arrives at the newspaper. Ten years earlier, Thandeka witnessed the murder of Me’Tau’s daughter, Dineo, by the secret police. Me’Tau wants Thandeka to find the murderers and Dineo’s body so that the girl can be buried in accordance with tradition.
Both women are unaware that the killers are lurking nearby. What Me’Tau couldn’t know is that Thandeka has already paid for her knowledge, for having dared stand up to the apartheid system run by the whites.
Mangi secretly prepares a Zulu love letter, four embroidered images representing solitude, loss, hope, and love, as a final gesture towards her mother so that she won’t give up the fight.