SHIKA AMENYO, a sensitive, inhibited woman from a respectable family, discovers that her cousin, SEFA GAMELI, has been keeping a terrible secret that is killing him. She embarks with him on a journey that is replete with shocking family scandals, betrayal and deep loss, but also restitution. Shika’s friends — MIYO, a fragile, unreachable soul, and SWEETIE, a shrewd spitfire on a mission — buttress her with much-needed support.

The resilience of these three women comes from mastering the survival traits of the grove. They are bound by painful secrets from childhood that drive their relationships with the men in their lives: a pragmatist whose generosity will touch many women; a traitor hiding behind a priest’s collar; an ambitious man living a lie in order to secure his career; and a green-eyed wanderer who must allow himself to be tamed if he is to obtain the one thing he desires from this foreign land.