This plot takes place during Apartheid when the white minority ruled the black majority of citizens by oppression in South Africa. The story begins with an introduction to the protagonist, Mehring. He's a wealthy, business-savvy man of middle age who has done well for himself. After his wife leaves him, he decides to buy a farm just outside his city. He needs something to do. He hires a black man named Jacobus to be his foreman, but he readily abuses the man. As readers quickly learn, Mehring is hopelessly racist. He disagrees with the present political resistance to Apartheid, favoring a more conservative approach to government and the preservation of a racial hierarchy. This complicates matters with his teenage son, Terry, because the boy is convicted to be a part of the anti-Apartheid movement.
Mehring has little success in his personal life because he's a pretty judgmental guy. He can't stop himself from criticizing the people around him and speaks purely out of the authority of wealthy and race, not wisdom. This is most likely why his wife left him. In her absence he has many mistresses, but he starts a longterm relationship with a woman named Antonia. She is his perfect opposite, a liberal activist who does not understand his fascination with money. Mehring brings her to his property one day, but she is unimpressed because of the deplorable conditions in which he keeps his slaves. Ultimately the relationship fails because Mehring is unable to remain open-minded enough to recognize his own ignorance.
After Antonia's criticisms, Mehring takes another look at how he is running his farm. He believes that he's treating his workers well, but he knows deep down that's not true. He taunts them, starves them, and beats them. If Jacobus is their representative, then he fares worse than the general populace. Mehring blames Jacobus for every failure and himself takes credit for each success. At Christmas Mehring buys his workers a slab of meat for their feast, but a dog steals it. Although he could buy a replacement, Mehring considers one loss enough for the day.
One day a black man, one of Mehring's workers, is found dead on the property. Since the authorities have little respect for black lives, they order the other workers merely to bury the body and do not conduct an investigation. The entire affair makes Mehring uneasy because he's superstitious enough to suspect ghosts exist. Terry leaves not long afterwards. He hops on a plane to join his mother in America because he cannot in good conscience serve in the corrupt South African military as he inevitably will be forced to do if he stays. Naturally this upsets Mehring who doesn't understand these silly scruples of his son's. He's still expecting the boy to be his heir and to take over the property. When a flood washes out the road between town and farm, Mehring is forced to let Jacobus run his affairs for a while until the roads dry up a bit. During his boss's absence, Jacobus takes the opportunity to give the dead man a proper burial. They hold a ceremony so that the man's soul may be at peace. Finally fortune shines better on the farm because Jacobus listened to his conscience, something which Mehring has learned to ignore.
