Kiam is frustrated in that his life appears to be going nowhere. He is a city boy, but is then confronted with the opportunity to inherit an abandoned farm in a remote tribal district. Will it be a new beginning or a disaster? What will the Valley of Weeping hold?
The novel explores the cultural differences and the racial polarization that was typical of South Africa before 1994, and portrays the climatic and geographical qualities of this part of the world.