In the deeply corrupt apartheid state of South Africa, the year 1953 is coming to an end. Five days before Christmas, a white couple is attacked and beaten unconscious in a Johannesburg villa neighborhood. The assailants then disappear with the Brewer family's new automobile. The fifteen-year-old daughter Cassie had hidden and remains unharmed. The father succumbs to his injuries later that same night. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper has transferred to Johannesburg to lead a double life with his secret family, a fact that none of his colleagues must suspect, especially not his suspicious superior, Lieutenant Walter Mason. Otherwise, Cooper faces the threat of losing his job and imprisonment, not to mention the repercussions that his colored wife and their young daughter would face: the racial segregation laws are merciless. He must therefore be extremely cautious.