His wife Jettel has trouble adjusting to life in Africa, although their daughter Regina quickly adapts to her new environment, easily learning the language of the country and showing interest in local culture.

Regina soon forms a close friendship with the farm's cook, Owuor, who helped save Walter's life when he contracted malaria.

When war breaks out, the British authorities round up all German citizens and intern them, including Jews, separating men from women.

Jettel sleeps with a German-speaking British soldier to secure work and a home on a farm for the family, and Regina and Walter both find out.

Walter decides to join the British Army and wants Jettel to go to Nairobi with him, but she refuses and stays to run the farm with Owuor.

Jettel and Walter make love and reconcile, and she tells him that she is pregnant with his child, leading him to conclude that she didn't sleep with Süsskind.

[4] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times hailed the film as being "laced with poignancy and conflict, urgency and compassion.

"[5] David Edelstein was less enthusiastic, writing "The movie isn't boring, but it's shapeless, more like a memoir than a novel, and threads are left dangling—as if it was meant to be four hours instead of 140 minutes.