Maya grows up in Germany in the shadow of her beautiful, volatile mother: a whirlwind, spinning stories of the family's former glory.

Then Kojo arrives. Kojo has a way of talking about Ghana, and empire, and history - and for the first time, Maya understands that her parents are exiles. But fate intervenes, and the cousins are separated.

Returning to Ghana years later, Maya's homecoming sets off an exorcism of her country's darkest demons. In this destruction's wake Maya realises her purpose: to tell the story of her mother her cousin, their land and their loss, in her own voice.