In the wake of his beloved wife's death, Leon Courtney, the renowned big-game hunter, is raising his young daughter, Saffron, alone in colonial Kenya. As Leon attempts to navigate the murky political waters of this most exquisitely beautiful and wildest of lands, his daughter grows into an independent and headstrong young woman bound for a far different life in Britain, as a student at Oxford. But over the course of more than two decades, spies, traitors, and adventurers will dog their every step. As the fitful years of peace lead to the outbreak of the Second World War, involving Africa once more, Leon and Saffron must fight for their survival.