Lusaka. 1978. Pumpkin is nine years old. Her fashionable mother is the queen of Tudu Court, but underneath the veneer of respectability that her father's money provides lies a secret that threatens their whole world – the tall, elegant Totela ponga is a drunk. And when Pumpkin's father – the wealthy businessman JS – discovers her mother's alcoholism it sets in motion a chain of events that come to define the rest of her life.

Weaving together the stories of three generations of women, this novel is a patchwork of love, jealousy and human frailty set against a backdrop of war and political ambition. It is a remarkable journey that takes us deep into the heart of family both fractured and bound together by their love for one man.