AFTER FIVE-YEAR-OLD Kivuli Farley's first day of school, a teacher she thinks is the most beautiful person she has ever met disappears. A few weeks later, the woman's body is discovered under a trash pile set to burn on the coffee plantation in Arusha, Tanzania, where Kivuli lives with her Maasai father, British mother, and her mother's long-time love ― a gay, black woman who had been in an abusive relationship with the murdered teacher. Kivuli grows up seeking the truth of these circumstances, but secrets and lies daunt her at every turn.

When she's fourteen, Kivuli's parents send her to stay for a year in America on the Rose family guest ranch where her great-grandfather had emigrated decades ago. She's anxious to learn more about her Maasai ancestor buried in Nevada before she was born, but the present journey proves to be as distressing as the past when she learns the old man had hidden a threatening note that led to a devastating tragedy for the Roses.

As Kivuli encounters diverse cultures, faiths, and passions, victims and perpetrators draw inexorably together on the road to forgiveness.

This novel is a beautiful story with characters who are full of depth and complexities. It holds provocative mysteries intertwined with messages of love, redemption, and acceptance - a joy for fans of family and interpersonal drama. - Jeffrie Susan