According to the village pastor, no one had a reason to hate Hugo Swart, the loyal and respected citizen. Yet on Christmas Eve, he is found stabbed in his kitchen. It appears that the only motive could have been money, leading to suspicion of Swart's servant, Shabalala, who has since fled to the countryside. Detective Michael Zondi tracks the suspect through remote villages, while Lieutenant Tromp Kramer is assigned to a different case: a car accident involving alcohol. Kramer soon draws parallels between the two cases and tries to extract information from the residents of Trekkersburg. The pastor's claims gradually reveal themselves to be outright lies.