Daniel, the son of Josh and Miriam Retallick, has grown to manhood. He settles with his wife and children on a homestead in the valley of Matabeleland. But it's South Africa in the 1880s, and the Matabele impis are advancing, with their singing spears, toward the guns of the white man. Daniel Retallick's loyalties and dreams are about to be swept by fate into the whirlpool of history.