This is the story of the four inhabitants of 127 Martha Street in the white suburb of Triomf, built over the ruins of old Sophiatown, once the vibrant and notorious centre of black city life in Johannesburg.

Through their eyes the novel probes Afrikaner history and the politics of the old South Africa, in order to reveal the bizarre and tragic effects of apartheid on the white lower classes who should have been its main beneficiaries.