Mourning the death of his lover from cancer, the poet and novelist Paul Morgan visits Mozambique to witness the first elections held in that country after a brutal fifteen year civil war. Caught up in the political ferment, he meets a group of idealists u and falls half in love with the beautiful Sacha. Driven by their passionate idealism, the group decide to murder an innocent political observer u and at the story's climax Paul Morgan discovers two things: that his lost love can never be replaced, and that political idealism can mask a true lack of human compassion.