Hans Bengler is an entomologist from Skåne, Sweden who is studying at Lund University and decides to go on an expedition on his own to the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa to find insects new to science and thereby to make a name for himself.

After a long and arduous journey by sea to Cape Town and then in the desert he arrives at a trading post run by an expatriate Swede, which Bengler decided to make the base for his explorations.

Whilst at the trading post he comes across a small boy, called Molo, who was the sole survivor in his extended family, the rest of whom had been brutally killed by men on horseback with spears and rifles, some who were white and some who were black.

Daniel begins to learn to speak Swedish and adopt some basic European customs, though still recalling the aspects of his African culture and beliefs he had been taught.

He befriends a young girl called Sanna, whose unusual behaviour has resulted in her being ostracised by local people and abused by her adopted father.