When Mary Llewellyn’s husband is killed in a battle between Welsh and English miners in poverty-stricken Wales, she resolves to forge a new life in the South African sun with her children. However, after overcoming a dangerous journey beset by snakes, crocodiles and hostile warriors, all is not as they had hoped in the village of Pilgrims Rest. Change is on the move in 1870s South Africa and Mary, Huw, Ianto, William and baby Tom are right in the middle of it. Battle breaks out first between the Zulus and the English, then the English and the Boers. And as Ianto’s hatred of the people who killed his father causes him to take up arms for the Boers, brother is pitted in battle against brother.