When he was a small child, Ilyas was stolen from his parents by cruel German colonial soldiers. German colonial soldiers were tasked with capturing people in East Africa to force them into their government to be used as free labor. Ilyas grows up with the Germans, adopting some of their cultures and learning the German language. However, he always remembers where he came from and the people who gave birth to him and loved him tenderly. And he never becomes a German.
That's why, after successfully escaping the Germans, Ilyas returns home to look for his parents and siblings. His journey back home is long and arduous but is crestfallen to see when he returns home that his parents have left their home and that his sister, Afiya has been abandoned into slavery. Ilyas saves Afiya from her slavers and the two get reacquainted with each other after so many years apart.
However, Afiya's life brightens when she meets a young man named Hamza. Like Ilyas, Hamza was stolen from his family at a very young age and forced to fight in the German military. And like Ilyas, Hamza was forever changed (both physically and mentally) by his experiences in the military and had nothing to his name—financially or otherwise.
Hamza quickly falls for Afiya, who he finds beautiful, kind, and charming. Hamza gets a job and his love for Afiya quickly blossoms. She loves him and he loves her. And they promise each other that they will stay together, no matter what. However, their love story is quickly interrupted when word comes to their new village of a new war. Tragically, though, Hamza is forced to go out again and fight in a war he has little interest in, causing him to leave Afiya—perhaps forever.
