Adele is in a mess. On her own with her young son, struggling to cope with her job as a teacher, and stuck in a disastrous affair - her life is unravelling. Her memories of idyllic years as a child in Senegal are fading, but she's haunted by a vision of her childhood friend, Ellena. Africa is in her head.

Ellena's childhood in exile from brutal conflict in Liberia was far removed from the vibrant Senegal Adele remembers, and a careless, heartless act destroyed the girls' friendship and jeopardised Ellena's fragile family. Adele must return to Africa to try and make amends and to attempt to pull together the drifting threads of her life.