Kagiso Molope's novel tells the story of thirteen-year-old Tihelo's hopes and dreams, her conflicts with friends and family, as well as her worries about her identity. All this takes place in 1980s South Africa: a time of school boycotts, stay aways, bloody police crackdowns and hippos in the streets. Slowly, Tihelo becomes involved in the struggle for freedom.

Through the riots, the death of a comrade, her sister's stay in hospital, her mother's time in jail, and her own brutal period in detention, Tihelo blazes out as a modern young woman with aspirations and ambitions, who will plot her own path to the future.