This perceptive first novel speaks to the quest for personal identity amid the dilemmas of a white tribe ‘lost in transition’ between the imperatives of old and new social order. Rose, the sensitive young protagonist, has been orphaned while still an infant and left with no clues to her ancestry. When the foster mother who raised her dies suddenly, Rose finds herself unexpectedly heir to a fortune – and in possession of a box containing artefacts that present baffling links to her heritage. This marks for Rose the beginning of a journey of self-discovery in search of her true identity – an identity beyond ‘whiteness’ and towards a greater sense of belonging and rootedness in African soil.