On his last night in prison, Aladam, incarcerated for many years for his opposition to white domination in South Africa, dreams about the political struggles that have shaped the course of the country.

The contours of his dream take us through the bewildered state of black people's lives after the Act of Union in 1910.

We come across an ambitious white President, Nieman, who has been recalled from retirement to protect the country from falling into black hands; the fierce political conflict between the English and the Afrikaners; the sudden onset of the Spanish Influenza ; and the outbreak of a violent white miners' strike.