Upon the death of their mother, Nawal, her grown twin children Janine and Simon learn from her Hill that they must search out their father and brother in their mother’s homeland. Their relationship with their mother had been strained while growing up but they had been told that their father was dead and there had been no mention of a brother. At first, they react angrily but gradually set out separately on their quest to dig backwards through time. Simultaneously, we are introduced to Nawal as a young girl, pregnant out of wedlock and forced to give up her child. Nawal later promises to find her lost son and her journey takes her through a land torn by the violence of civil war with death and revenge all around her until eventually she is imprisoned for a military assassination. The journeys of Simon and Janine and of Nawal finally collide in a horrific revelation.