Book continues with the story of the fourth part in which Wilbur Smith painted the character of Centaine i.e a French girl who is pregnant and needs help. The girl was going to South Africa in The Burning Shore for the sake of her child who is yet to be born. Now she finally reaches the place where she got settled and prepared the strong ground for her family. The Courtney family is the most influential family of the region and now Centaine is also a member of that family because she gave birth to one of its heirs.
Only a few people however know that Shasa Courtney is not the only child of Centaine, she has another son whom she has kept in secret. Manfred the other son of Centaine lives with his father and his father has told him nothing about the woman who gave him birth. War has ended on different sides of the world and as a result of war, people are facing economic depression which has resulted in hunger and poverty.
Centaine at this stage is forced to take strong steps to defend her state and status. Fate takes her to the stage where she has to pound the poor to keep herself and her family on the top. Among those poor people, Manfred and his father also get pounded by the woman who owes them a lot. Sean Barrett got emotional in narration during When the Lion Feeds and here we once again hear the same tone. The narrator got emotional in voice during the narration of the scenes where Centaine crushes her old love for the sake of her survival and the survival of her family.
