Mark McLuhan is a porter in a London hospital, a job he does because, despite his intellectual over-qualifications, he's always wanted to be a carer. The paradox is, though, that the only person apart from himself that he can feel for is his older sister Geena. Then, suddenly shattering their fragile close family's existence, the onset of fits in Geena provoke recovered memories and eventually a disturbing discovery: she had been adopted at the age of three before her parents had left South Africa. Now Mark has to face up to his ambivalent feelings for a woman with whom it would be legitimate to have a romantic relationship. However Geena is determined to trace her blood parents and, returning to South Africa, unwittingly becomes drawn into a world of gun-running and evil gangsters. Forced to re-evaluate, Mark and his family set out to find Geena amongst the townships, and a fresh - eventually stronger - equilibrium to their lives.