This African drama presents a political allegory about apartheid. It begins as a South African grandmother tells a story about how animals and humans once competed for control of the Earth. The film then moves into the story of young Nandi and her family who live under the repressive rule of the wicked whites. Nandi loses her family one tragic night when her father and brother are shot for walking on an Anglos-only beach. She in turn kills a cop and is forced to run for her life. She flees to the Ivory coast where she learns about the joys of life after apartheid. There she also meets Solofa who wants to marry her; she says yes, but only on the condition that he go with her on a humanitarian mission to her oppressed home village. Later, Nandi grows more concerned with her own needs and decides to abandon Solofa and leave along with a young Taureg girl whom Nandi uses as her "daughter."