It's 2018 and Cape Town is wracked by its worst drought on record. The prospect of 'Day Zero' – when the taps will run dry – is driving citizens into a frenzy.

Then the ruling Democratic Alliance removes control of the water issue from Mayor Patricia de Lille. While politicians turn on each other, revealing deep-lying faultlines and new enmities, it raises a critical question: who will lead the Mother City through the crisis?

Against this fraught backdrop, author and academic Crispian Olver resolves to explore how the city of his childhood is run, and he sets his sights in particular on the relationship between local politicians and property developers. Interviewing numerous people – including many dropped from the City administration in often-questionable circumstances – he uncovers a Pandora's box of backstabbing, infighting and backroom deals.

Olver explores dodgy property developments in the agriculturally sensitive area of Philippi, on the scenic West Coast and along the glorious – and lucrative – Atlantic Seaboard, delves into attempts to 'hijack' civic associations and exposes the close yet precarious relationship between the mayor and City Hall's 'laptop boys'. And in blistering detail he gets to grips with the political meltdown within the DA and the defection of De Lille to form her own party.