At 29 years old, Mary and her newlywed husband embark at a two-year diplomatic assignment to South Africa. A continued campaign of economic sanctions from the international community has pressured President De Klerk to negotiate with recently-freed Nelson Mandela to end apartheid with the end goal of democratic government. Uncertainty about the future hangs like a cloud cover over the South African heat.

It is into this powder keg environment that Mary and Patrick arrive in Cape Town in August 1992 on their first diplomatic mission as a couple. A Special Agent in Diplomatic Security, Patrick must protect the Ambassador and the American community. Negotiations have broken down again after the latest massacre, the black townships are embroiled in gang warfare, and the Ambassador's life has been threatened. Patrick immerses himself in work while Mary is left to find her way.

Stripped of her name and identity, Mary — Mrs. McGhee to the State Department. She refuses to be shuffled into passive domesticity as a "trailing spouse". After their first diplomatic dinner at the Ambassador's home, despite an argument with Patrick that threatens to send her back to the States, Mary lands a job at the American Embassy as a USAID worker. But the unrelenting stress of Patrick's job along with the constant threat of danger for both he and Mary — including surveillance 24/7 by National Party spies — takes a toll on the marriage. When an American woman is murdered by a black mob outside Cape Town, Mary is shaken to the core. After yet another massacre, Patrick insists Mary learn to shoot.

She’s aware of what it means to be part of this watershed moment in history, if the country can make it to an election before imploding. The whole world watches the drama unfold.

Mary's story takes place in Cape Town, and in the wilds of Kruger Park Game Reserve, the beauty of the wine country of the Western Province, and the captivating Atlantic coastal peninsula to the tip of Cape of Good Hope.